Foolishness of a Heart
by ksienie
Summary: Roxas is a quiet kid, trying his best not to stand out too much at school,to not get any attention. At his drawing academy however, he can loosen up and be himself. But his life is bound to get a bit more chaotic when Axel decides drawing is a good hobby
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter I**

Summary:

Roxas is a quiet kid, trying his best not to stand out too much at school, trying to not get any attention. For multiple reasons. At his drawing academy however, he can loosen up and be himself. But his life is bound to get a bit more chaotic when Axel decides drawing looks like a good way to pass his time.

Disclamer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. The lyrics are Secret and Kill kill kill from The Pierces respectively.

A/N:

This story will be set in Belgium, and thus follow the Belgian school system. In Belgium, there isn't something like middle and high school. The system goes like this:

Kindergarten: 2/3 – 5 years old. (3 years)

Primary school: 6 – 11/ 12 years old (6 years)

Secondary school: 12 – 18 years old (6 years)

University

In this story, Roxas is in 4th grade of secondary school, which means he's 15 and about to turn 16, while Axel is in his 6th year, which means he's 17 and about to turn 18.

* * *

Secrets  
_Got a secret  
Can you keep it?  
Swear this one you'll save  
_-The Pierces

I turned around when a bright red caught my eye. My eyes just had the time to get as big as saucers, before I turned back to face his friends again. _What is he doing here? He shouldn't be here._ I repressed the urge to look over my shoulder for a second time. _Even if he joined drawing academy, he's a sixth grader, his classes shouldn't be here._

"You okay?" Namine asked, one brow raised.

My head shot up. I had to blink twice to get back to earth. "Uh, yeah. I guess."

It looked like she was going to say something back, but I was saved by our art teacher calling everyone to start a begin-of-the-year-speech.  
"All right, guys. This year'll be a bit different, 'cuz the attendance record has reached its lowest point ever. So this year you'll all be having lessons with the sixth graders."

Looking around, I indeed noticed that there seemed to be less people than usual. I looked back at our teacher, smartly hidden behind Xion's back.

"For those who don't know me, my name's Ralph. Please call me that or you'll be ignored. I want no sirs or misters. 'Kay, you can all go take a seat. I'll shortly come and explain each year's task for today."

I skidded back to his table in a record time, my friends slowly following. I was getting a spark of hope. Maybe I could still get through this day –and, if I was lucky, even this year –without being noticed.  
Unfortunately, that hope was crushed immediately when I heard someone say: "Can I sit here?" When I looked for the source of this voice I was frightened to see someone with red hair I had tried to avoid. Axel –probably the most popular boy of my school.

"It's unusual; the sixth graders all sit over there, but sure," I heard Namine say. "Why would you come sit with us though?"  
"Oh, I know Roxas here," Came the reply.  
I didn't have time to be shocked my name was known by a school idol. My mind was still blown with the thought of why the hell Axel wanted to sit with us, but it struck me fast.  
My behavior a few minutes ago had probably just screamed 'Please don't come sit here! I have things to hide. And those things could easily come to daylight if you go sit right beside me.' How idiotic. I just wanted to hit myself right now. Vanishing was a nice option too.

I was used to a life where I tried to be as invisible as possible at school, afraid to become a laughing stock and to avoid daily abuse. The drawing academy, however, was a complete different matter.  
And Axel was the guy who was probably most capable of ruining my life, and the situation I was in was probably most capable of reaching that exact same goal.  
First, the academy was as safe for secrets as a street full of housewives, and a few things I didn't want everyone to know could easily be found here. Including the fact that I was as straight as the multi colored birthday strings that were scattered around the academy.  
Second, I'd had a crush for the Devil-knows-how-long on a certain man, who was now sitting beside me, a wild grin plastered on his face.  
And there was also _that thing_, though I wasn't really worried about that. Xion was the only one who knew the whole story, and she was part of it anyway.

"So, who are you guys?" Axel asked.  
"I'm Namine," came the girl's immediate response. "And she's called Xion," she continued, nodding to the girl beside me. "And those three at the end of the table are Kairi, Sora and Riku."  
Axel nodded, slowly progressing the information.

"Sooo… Have you decided to sit here, what was your name again?" Ralph suddenly stood behind them, appearing out of nowhere.

"Name's Axel, got it memorised?" I turned around. "And yeah, I think I'm going to sit here."  
Ralph nodded. "Just come over when I explain the task, so I don't have to say the same thing over and over again." Then he turned towards the other people at the table. It was only then I saw the two busts in his hands. "Observation practice for you guys," he said while putting one of the heads on the table. "I don't want you to change anything, got it?"  
Xion sighted. "Uhg. Observation practice." Namine just chuckled.

Axel left to hear the explanation of what he'd be doing for the next couple of hours and hell broke loose immediately: "So you know him?" (Sora) "Where is he from?" (Kairi) "Is he a nice kid?" (Xion). The questions were muffled and everyone had started drawing already.  
I shrugged. "He's just someone from school. I would never even have thought he'd knew my name." Then I made a face. "My life is ruined. He and his gang are quite notorious."  
Before anyone could assure me they would keep quiet, Axel came sauntering back and they all shut up. The older boy didn't even seem to notice as he took the brushes he'd need. I mentally made up my mind to not speak again, that would probably be the safest. And maybe it would even make him lose interest and make him sit somewhere else next week.

Sora was the first one to speak again. Unlike the others, he had the ability to jabber all day long.  
"So Axel, why did you decide to do drawing academy?"  
The newcomer shrugged. "Geh, I just wanted to have something to do on my Saturday mornings. They're always too boring. What about you lot?"  
It was Riku's turn to say something now. "We've just been going here our whole lives I guess. First it was just Kairi, Sora and me though. The rest joined soon after."  
"Jeah. Good times. Back in those days Roxas looked like he was just a little, innocent girl." Sora should really just shut his mouth sometimes. I shot him a dead glare. Axel was snickering in my ear.

"Why drawing though? You look like the type that sports a lot." How lucky I could always rely on Xion to save me. Axel grinned. Again. "I do. But my parents didn't want me to take any more sports. Said I already have enough chances to break my neck."  
"What do you do then?" I closed his mouth immediately. I wanted to bang my head on the table. There went my resolve to keep quiet.

I was amazed at how big Axel's grin became though. I'd never seen such a huge smile. Not even from Sora, which meant a lot.  
"Windsurfing. And mountain boarding. And sometimes I go wakeboarding too." I had no idea what in hell's name mountain boarding or wakeboarding was, but according to Sora's gawking expression, it sure was impressing. I made a little mental note to Google it sometime.

"So do you do anything? Besides drawing?" Axel called for my attention again. I nodded. "Yeah, I play the guitar, and I go.. Skating." I hoped the slight hitch wasn't too noticeable.  
"Skating?" Bad luck. I nodded once again.  
"Ice skating. Short track," I said firmly.  
Luckily, Axel decided to let it go. We proceeded to draw in silence, while the other tables were chatting away loudly.

After a while, Axel seemed to get annoyed because of the silence. Despite the urge to lighten the mood, I kept quiet. I didn't want to give the older guy any more information he could ruin my life with, so I trusted my friends to take some kind of action.

Unfortunately, that action didn't come until Namine finished her drawing. In record time, as always, but to me, it still took too long.  
"Aah. Finally done," she sighted while stretching her fingers.

Sora rolled his eyes. "Yeah, finally," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see he wasn't even halfway, and still struggling to get the damn nose right.

Axel got over to take a look, and I saw the chance to take a peek at the older boy's drawing. The assignment was most likely to either draw a new species of animals, or alter an existing one. At least that was what I guessed from the mutated bird that was forming on the paper.

It didn't look very friendly, but it had quite the cute air about it. Cute, to my standards at least, which were probably far from general opinion. It looked a bit like a swallow, but its feathers had more of a peacock's. Its beak was sharp, and it would hurt if it would attack, but I doubted it could be used to eat anything but grain. Its claws looked the most dangerous though, apart from his eyes, which looked terrifying, even though that was probably the most harmless part of the body. Yes, very cute indeed.

"Admiring my skills?"  
I jumped and tried to turn around at the same time, hitting the table painfully with one of my knees.

I had to sit through the rest of the hour with Axel's laugh in my ears. I was more than happy when Ralph announced the end of their Saturday morning.

Monday wasn't very pleasant. I tried to blend into the crowd more than ever, fearing –but at the same time hoping– Axel would recognize me and say something. For once I was happy the sixth graders had a cozy, little classroom to eat their sandwiches, while I had lunch in the loud mess that was called the canteen.  
Luckily, I began to relax during the following days, and when Saturday came around again, I was able to put on a mask of indifference and ignored Axel the whole morning. Namine shot me a few confused glances, but I decided this was the best way to make sure I wouldn't slip up.

Despite my act of nonchalance, I was actually burning to know more about Axel, so during the little break we had, I invited Xion for a little walk in the garden.

One of the nice things about our drawing academy was the big garden. Calling it a small park would probably be a bit over the top, but it came close. The weather was nice today, and we weren't surprised to see a couple of people lying and sitting on the grass. I waited until I was sure they couldn't hear us before I began to speak.  
"Xion, could you do something for me?"  
She eyed me a bit suspiciously, but said nothing.  
"Er… Could you please, well, er… ask Axel a few questions and, err... such… things…"  
She raised one brow. I noticed she was biting her lip to keep herself from laughing at my awkwardness.  
"But Roxas, aren't you usually very good at those kinds of things, you know, figuring stuff out about people?" An uncharacteristic smile spread across her face as she spoke with a way too innocent voice.  
"Yeah, err, yes, but he might ask stuff back and er…" I really didn't want Axel to know certain things about myself. Figure skating wasn't very manly, as were my taste in music and my love for romantic novels. The jokes about me being sure if I really wasn't a girl had become old quite a few years ago.

As I tried to neglect the voice in the back of my mind saying _'Are you sure that's the reason you don't want him to know?'_ I felt Xion's hand on my arm. The girl was giggling softly.  
"I'll ask," she promised. Then she gave me one of her most innocent looks. "But I'm afraid I'll have to call in Namine's help."  
I groaned. Really, the drawing academy was _not_ a good place for secrets.

* * *

On the verge of insanity  
_What were you doing in my dream last night, Hunnie?  
Well I thought I locked that door up tight, Baby.  
Well it's a mystery to me  
How you keep on slippin'  
In my mind…_  
-The Pierces

I needed to calm myself; this was just a crush on someone I didn't know anything about. My fantasy had probably taken the better part of me and made him into some god-like guy.  
It would all be over if I found out more about him.

But it didn't go over.

On the contrary, every time I found out something about him, I just got more and more interested. And every time he'd do something good, I would almost be proud, because he was the one I lik– No. I didn't like him; I never said I liked him.

But still, whenever I caught a glimpse of red, my eyes seemed to be drawn to it automatically, and whenever I heard his name, it would create a slight shiver to run down my spine. But that didn't prove anything, did it? That didn't mean I… It was just a crush.

I was lying on my bed. I had just discovered something I didn't like. It's not like I didn't know it already. It's just that I'd never wanted to see it, so I wouldn't see it. But things are hard to neglect when someone throws it in your face. And I have to say that it hurt.

The day had been beautiful. It had been one of those nice autumn days where the sun tried to make people believe it was still summer. But everything turned around when our Latin lesson came around. About ten minutes after it had begun. The girl beside me started sobbing. She'd been quiet the whole day, but I hadn't been observing enough that day to have noticed. My mind had been elsewhere.  
Our professor turned around and walked over to our table.  
"Olette, what's wrong?" Her voice was soft, in order to not frighten her.  
Olette just shook her head, but she didn't stop crying.  
"Shh, take some deep breaths."  
The girl tried to do as the teacher said, which just resulted in some hiccups, but the sobbing didn't stop.

The teacher glanced down, and apparently she must have found the source of Ollette's agony, because she silently whispered: "You shouldn't cry over him. Everyone knows he's a player. He's not worth your tears."

As I glanced down at the girl's work-book, I saw the scribble. Olette must have tried to erase it, but it was still clearly visible. In big letters, colored in with pencils. _'Olette 3 Axel'_

My mind was blank. The only proof that it was still working was the scene it protected in my head over and over. The crying, the whispering, the drawing. And every time, I felt like someone was hitting me with a tennis racket. Because every time I was hit, there was still a single square of my mind that was whispering: '_That means he's free now_.' And I didn't know what hurt more.

So right now I was trying to find something to distract myself from all this. Anything would do, as long as it would help me to not fall to insanity, like I was doing right now. Unfortunately, my mind had decided to stop listening to me.

So I was lying on my bed with my head of the mattress and almost touching the ground. It must have been a rather curious sight to my mother, who happened to walk into my room at that moment, phone in her hand.

"Saix called. He wants to see you at 8."

_Finally. Someone has come to rescue me._

_

* * *

A/N: Wooh! First chapter done. Personally, I don't really like this one because nothing really happens, more like a short introduction. But next chapter will be really nice._

Can anyone tell me if I'm actually allowed to use lyrics? I can't really understand the rule.

_Another thing: would you like to have longer chapters in the future, or short, but more and faster updates? _

**Random fact of the day:  
**The billionth digit of pi is 9


	2. Chapter 2

_Fools in love  
__Fools in love, are there any creatures more pathetic?  
Fools in love, never knowing when they've lost the game  
_-Joe Jackson

I had never thought much about girls. But I had never thought they could be this cruel. Especially to other girls they didn't even know. I had also never thought love could turn into hate so quickly. And actually, I wouldn't have given a damn about all this, if the cause of it would not have been Axel.

He actually had to hurry up and go home, but when he heard that single praise, he couldn't help but stop and stare.

"Pence, can't we wait for the bus somewhere else? There's a little slut standing here, trying to look sexy for her boyfriend; it's ruining my mood"

Olette's words could have been quite hurtful for the other girl, if only she would have been able to keep the jealousy out of them.  
I knew I should just get back on my bike and ride away as fast as I could in order to not be hurt again, but I didn't. Curiosity killed the cat, but it looked like the poor animal wouldn't be the only victim.

"Ah, it's so nice to feel some sparks of hatred from you. Your fangirly love was almost making me throw up." The other girl had a good comeback, in my opinion, but Olette did not look impressed.  
"And you think your 'love' is actually deep, and going to get you somewhere? With _him_? I'm sorry to break it to you, girl, but you're not living in a fairy tale."  
The girl seemed to have some sort of clever answer ready, but I never found out what it was, because as that moment a "For God's sake, stop bitching kids, I'm getting a headache" was heard and everyone turned to face Larxene, Marluxia in her tow. Beside her stood Demyx and, of course, Axel.

The latter seemed to not have heard the conversation earlier, as he just strode over to the girl that was waiting at the bus stop – completely neglecting Olette, who now seemed to be radiating with jealousy – and sliding a lanky arm over her shoulder.

He whispered something in her ear, she laughed and Olette turned and stamped away. Then he looked around at the bystanders, as if only now he noticed they were not alone. I didn't have time to see if his burning eyes would linger anywhere, because as soon as our gazes crossed, I turned around and started cycling, not wanting to admit I had been staring. And not at the girl.

I noticed too late – again – that my actions could have quite the opposite effect of what I wanted them to have. Again. I also noticed too late that today was a Friday. Which meant tomorrow was Saturday. And I had drawing academy on Saturday mornings. Which meant I'd have to think of a good reason to stare by tomorrow. At 9 in the morning.

But when I came home, I discovered I was quite lucky. The rink opened tomorrow, and I had training until 10 o' clock. Add half an hour to cycle from the rink to the academy, which meant I had one hour and a half more to think. Not that it would matter much. It was just stay of execution.

I glanced at my watch. 8:07 it said. Only two hours of skating and 26 minutes of cycling away from my doom.  
"Stop fidgeting Roxas," I whispered to myself while tying my skates, "You're over exaggerating."  
I pushed myself away from the bench I was sitting on. _'Maybe he doesn't even ask anything. Maybe he just brushed it off as idiotic behavior from a stupid guy he happens to sit with 4 hours a week, on Saturday mornings, to keep himself busy.'_ But a small voice in the back of my head was saying: '_You know he's not the type to overlook something like that. He's the type to make fun out of everything, every time he finds an opportunity.'_ And I knew that last sentence was, unfortunately, right.

Warming up started and I was all too happy I had to concentrate to the fast rhythm of the music, trying to keep up and not skate over others at the same time.

The moment I walked into the drawing academy, six pairs of eyes looked op to meet mine directly. Only five of them had a welcoming glance in them though. I couldn't place the emotion in the other one. It was something along curiosity, but with a jest that made me uncomfortable. But above all, it looked like bad news.

I swallowed, shifting from one foot to the other before I started to walk up to our table, bracing myself for possible questions and remarks. Fortunately, there were none. However, as I sat down at my usual spot, Axel's lips formed into a smile. A bad, bad omen.

"So, you ditched us to practice uh?" Apparently, my absence had not gone unnoticed. Axel must have talked to my friends. _'I really, really hope Sora kept his mouth. At least enough to not say anything stupid.'_

"Yes," I nodded, "Got to get as fast as I can. I've got to use every minute I can." I didn't look at him. I was a bad liar. Collecting searching my bag for pencils that had 'accidentally' fallen out of my pen case was a good excuse. I hoped he would leave it at that. Actually, I didn't know a thing about short track, expect for the fact that I had the wrong muscles to do it. I'd be screwed if he asked detail questions.

There was no reply. When I finally looked up – way too early if you asked me, but my excuse had run out – I met Axel's eyes again, this time staring at me intently, as if thinking about something. It made me suddenly very self-conscious.

I had thought for hours on what to wear. Usually, I took something out of my closet at random and searched other clothes that went well together. But today, it hadn't been so easy. I was lucky I had anticipated this yesterday; otherwise I probably would still be searching at home. Or I wouldn't have been able to sleep, worried as I would have been. But it looked like there was still some sense left in me, so I had picked my clothes yesterday evening, first thing after eating a little snack upon coming home.  
The first thing I looked for was a pair of trousers. I wanted to wear my favorite pair, I knew they actually made me look a bit cool – if I could trust Sophie, the girl I practiced with usually, that is – but after searching the house for 20 minutes, asking my dad 12 times if he'd seen it, I found it with the laundry, stained with spaghetti sauce.  
I had settled on another pair. They were black, and quite boyish, but I didn't really like them. They were just a bit too baggy for me.  
I wore a plain black sweater with a wife beater underneath. Normally I wore our club's sweater to trainings, but for obvious reasons, I had 'forgotten' it at home.

As Axel's grin became broader, I knew he was going to make some incredibly idiotic comment, making sure I would spend the rest of the day blushing. Whatever it was, I would probably never find out, because he was interrupted by a loud: "hey Roxas, not frozen to dead yet?", as Ralph appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, to explain that I had to reproduce some old advertisement and change something about it, and by the time he was gone, Axel had gone back to doing whatever he had been doing before I had entered, comment probably already forgotten.

Peace returned when I, too, began to draw. As time passed, an older version of the man on the advertisement began to form on my paper. I gave him a wig I knew people had been wearing in whatever era in the past and stopped when I had to clothe him. I had no idea what he should wear.

Before I could begin to brood, I was distracted by Sora.  
"Hey, Roxas, you free next Friday?"  
I answered yes without thinking. I was always free on Fridays and it didn't occur to me Sora should know this.

A second later, Axel's voice was in my ear, way to close, his breath caressing the hairs on my neck.  
"That's settled then."

I looked up, eyes big with confinement. I could feel my brows knit together. My head was way too occupied with thoughts of what the hell was happening to blush. Which I was quite thankful for afterwards. I looked at Sora for an explanation.

"He gave me a cookie."

_What. The. Hell._

"You'll come, right?" Axel said. The sentence was formed as a question, but his tone made clear 'no' was not the right answer.

"Where to?" I asked cautiously.

"The rink in Wilrijk. You know where it is. As a matter of fact, you where there about two hours ago," he smirked.

"Why?" My face was stern, making clear I didn't want to go.

"You know about the 'friends' action, right?"

I nodded. It was an action where you could buy entry tickets online in a small group, giving you the _amazing_ reduction of 75 eurocents.

"Well, we bought four entry tickets for next Friday, but Larx has to work that day."

My face was still the same, which meant: 'There's no way in hell I'm going."

"C'mon Roxas, you need every minute of practice you can get." He said the last part with a sing-song like voice, repeating the excuse I had given when I came in. And it was actually true. I did need practice, and even though this whole thing smelled like a trap, I nodded, though not very enthusiastically. I had no way to get out of it without sounding like a stupid asocial bitch anyway.

This should be the end of a very bad memory from a very bad day I planned to lock up somewhere tight in the back of my mind, but fate decided she hated me.

That evening, Sora called. By the tone of his voice, I immediately knew he was going to say something I wouldn't like.

"Hey, Roxas, I don't really know how to say this, but… this morning, Riku, Kairi and I were talking about you," he stopped a moment, as if he was unsure about how to continue.

"Go on," I urged.

"Axel had gone to hear about his task for the morning, but he came back earlier than expected, and, well… he might have heard something… and it might… cause him to draw some… conclusions…" I swore my heard stood still for a few beats.

"Roxas, are you alright?"

"Ugh, yeah."

There was a short pause.

"Sora, why did you ask about Friday? Now he might know I have a crush on him," Sora chuckled a bit, as if he was saying 'You know most people would call this something more than a crush', which annoyed me even more as I continued, "Did you think it was such a good idea? Just for some cookies?"

"Relax, Roxas. Breathe," he laughed, but he turned serious when he heard I wasn't. "You know, he asked me to as you about Friday at the beginning of the morning, before he overheard us. If I suddenly cancelled the deal, wouldn't it be suspicious? Wouldn't those few words he heard suddenly get a whole new meaning? It would be even easier for him to draw conclusions."

I sighed. Sora was right. But it also meant I was wrong, and I was too stubborn to admit that just yet.

"Come on, Roxas. Something good might actually happen on Friday. You never know."

"Sora, you're way too optimistic." He laughed.

"Yeah, but you're Mr. Super Pessimist, so we're even."

With that, the conversation was brought to a close.

It was Friday night, 6 o' clock sharp. The rink opened at 7 and it took about 30 minutes to get there. Meaning I had 30 minutes left to clothe myself. My clothes were easy to pick. My mother had washed my favorite trousers. On top, I wore a grey wife beater and a black, slim fitting jumper.

The problem was the skates. If I wore my own – my figure skates – the secret I tried so hard to hide would be exposed in a matter of seconds. Would Axel know what short track skates looked like? Would he notice if I took my mother's hockey skates? They fit, but would he notice they were woman's wear? He would probably see I couldn't really skate in them. At least not enough for someone who had been skating before he could walk. Did Axel know how long I had been skating? Should I tell him my skates were dull? That sounded like such a weak excuse.

I wished I could just slam my head against a wall and erase all the thoughts. It was so annoying, like hyperventilating almost, but then with thoughts. Hyperthoughtilating? Hyperthinking? No, that sounded like some weird super power.

I dropped my head in my hands, noticing the ends were still damp. I had just showered. I knew it was futile. I'd have to shower again after skating, but, oh well, who cares?

Lifting my head back up, I took a look at my alarm clock. _6: 27._ How come time always goes by so quickly when you don't want it too? There was no time for useless thoughts anymore. With a sigh, I stood up and ran a brush through my hair, even though it was as futile as the shower. My hair was never in a mood to obey.

I grabbed my skating bag and threw some snacks in it before jumping on my bike and with only a "I'm going out" to my parents, I rode straight towards hell.

* * *

_A/N: Wooh, chapter 2 is up. _

_Please review! I don't know when chapter 3 will be there, as I'm only halfway in writing it, and I promise I'll work faster if I get reviews._

**Random fact of the day:  
**There is an ant in Brazil that has a gland which causes the ant to explode like a bomb, spraying a sticky toxic goo on everybody nearby. Now that's some hard core biology!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Whoo, finally the third chapter. Thank you **Sexy-Tacos-Emo-Waffles** and **Nitrea** for reviewing! I would have replied, but I don't know how I have to do that. -_-

Disclaimer: I think it's obvious I don't own KH. The song is the same as in the last chapter: Fools in love by Joe Jackson

Edit: I changed the time Roxas knows Axel because it'll be important later on.

* * *

**Chapter III**

_Fools in love (2)  
__Fools in love they think they're heroes  
'Cause they get to feel more pain  
I say fools in love are zeros  
I should know, I should know  
Because this fool's in love again  
_-Joe Jackson

I was early, there were almost no cars in the parking lot and I could immediately spot Axel's red hair. He was alone and clearly waiting for someone. Probably me.

I picked up some speed in an attempt to surprise him. I rode straight to him and stopped only when it was clear he wouldn't jump out of the way. A wheel hit his knee, but it didn't have enough speed to really hurt him. He hadn't moved an inch. The only thing that had changed were his lips, now smiling brightly. The 'if I were a car, you would be dead' comment I initially planned on saying suddenly sounded very childish and stupid.

It was the first time I stood face to face with him and I only noticed just now how incredibly tall he was.

He bowed down a bit, resting his arms on the steering-wheel. His face was way too close, but with the saddle pressing in my back, I couldn't get away. I could only hope he would move his face away and, above all, that I wasn't blushing like a high-school girl right now.

"Nice to see you."

The words lingered in my ears for a few seconds, ringing like bells before I understood what he had said. By the time I blinked with my eyes his face was gone.

"The others are in the cafeteria, didn't want to wait outside. Drunkards."

I would have laughed, but I was way too stunned by what had just happened. And by his clothes.

"Axel, isn't that way too cold?"

He was wearing black, broad pants, which were not the problem, but both his leather jacket and his shocking red shirt missed sleeves and his gloves didn't have fingers. (They were studded however, but I was positive the metal wouldn't help him fight the cold). He looked at himself like he didn't understood what I meant.

"I'm naturally hot, nothing to break your little head over."

He got a flat look in return.

"I have other gloves. With fingers."

"That's not the problem."

Smile.

"You worried about me?"

Pause.

"No."

When we got to the cafeteria, the two 'drunkards' had finished whatever drink they had ordered – if they had had anything at all – because their table was empty. They came over as soon as they saw Axel, which, of course, did not take them long.

"Hya there, I'm Demyx and this weirdo here's Marluxia."

Directly after the sentence left his mouth, Demyx got slapped by the other boy.

"I know," I answered, earning a strange look from Marluxia.

I shrugged. "Well, it's difficult not to know a group of people whose hair can be spotted from 500 meters away. Especially if they have a girl amongst their ranks that picks on every first year she sees." _'Or she thinks is a first year.' _That last sentence however, I didn't dare to say aloud.

"I like you,' Demyx said. "Though I wouldn't take Larx too lightly. She has a whole army of girls at her side."

"Hey guys, I actually got to go to the toilet. You go ahead."

Coward. This was only stay of execution. But at least now there was this little chance Axel's friends wouldn't be in the vicinity while I'd do the embarrassing job of explaining why I had lied to him and that I _did_ actually do – and even like – figure skating.

I had no idea what kind of difference that would make, but that was of secondary importance.

I decided to go and put on my skates before I turned into a pussy and ran away. Luckily Marluxia, Demyx and Axel had already entered the rink.

When I came into the rink, I just stood there for a moment to take in my surroundings. Axel was warming up on the outside circle of the rink that was used for short track and from what I could see; he wasn't half bad at skating. Marluxia and Demyx were on the inner circle – the real rink, which was used for figure skating and ice hockey. Marluxia seemed to be doing okay, but Demyx fell more in five minutes than I did in an hour while practicing for my jumps. He looked like he would have the same level of skating skills as Marluxia though if only he would be a bit less reckless.

I couldn't spend the whole evening staring though and I skated over to Axel reluctantly. When he saw me, his eyes darted towards my feet immediately and his mouth turned into a smile.

"Nice skates."

"So, um..." I looked away.

"You didn't tell me you did _figure_ skating"

"Um, well, yeah…"

"So what can you do?"

I looked at him in surprise.

"What?"

His smile had turned into a grin.

"Well, this is way more _interesting_ than short track. So tell me what you can do. You've awoken my curiosity."

I eyed him suspiciously. This was not the reaction I had expected. Didn't he think I was way too girly to be normal?

"Well, I can do all kinds of spins. As for jumps, I can do anything really, salchows, loops, flips, lutzes, Rittbergers, toeloops, axels... That's about it."

I was counting them out on my fingers, but when I looked up again, the grin on Axel's face had become _huge_. _Not good._

"I'd like to see you jump an Axel. Preferably this one." His eyes were twinkling, both index fingers pointing at himself.

I could feel my jaw drop, while the rest of my body froze. I knew when I first heard Axel as a name, I had been quite surprised. I'd been figure skating for years by then and when I heard 'Axel', I was bound to think of the jump, and every time someone spoke of it as a name, it would sound like an inside joke and I was bound to laugh a bit in myself. But I had known the redhead for almost two years by now, and over time, 'Axel' and 'axel' had become two entirely different things and when speaking of one of them, I never thought of the other anymore.

So there I stood, looking like a deer caught in headlights, while Axel's grin never vanished.

I remembered once comparing Axel's grin to Sora's. But now I couldn't understand anymore how I could ever have thought they were alike. Sora's smiles were always bright, while his eyes were shining with happiness, but this, this was almost frightening. Axel looked almost like a predator that was playing with his prey, his eyes full of mischief. And that was not a good sign.

"I'm going to get a coke."

Monday came around and I was bored. The whole class was, actually and everyone was just waiting around for the bell to finally rescue us. Ethics was always boring. We weren't a good class; it was hard to be one with a teacher like ours. We didn't say anything useful because he would just shout at us anyway and it just wasn't worthwhile. Ethics class was often use to finish homework or to socialize with your friends, but when you didn't have any of the two, you had to fill your time with other things. Like thinking how you just wanted last Friday had never happened.

Last Friday…

After stomping of to the vending machine to buy a coke, I'd joined Marluxia and Demyx, completely ignoring Axel. To my relief, none of them had found my figure skating girly, gay, or, even worse, both. (I quote Demyx: "Why would we? I mean, have you seen Marley's _hair_?") The two of them actually made quite nice company.

Saturday, my game of 'ignore the idiot' continued. I didn't even allow myself to look at him. (I'd failed miserably though, but I don't know if Axel had noticed that I had been cheating.)

I usually didn't see Axel at school. The sixth years had a special classroom for themselves where they could stay during free periods and breaks, so the only way for me to see him here was when changing classrooms. This was exactly where I had to prepare myself for once the bell rang. I knew my heart would jump when I'd see red spikes in the corridors and I had to make sure my inner turmoil wouldn't show on my face. Luckily Axel was nowhere to be seen and I could walk into the classroom that was used for Latin safely.

During Latin we had to do a little group assignment with the person sitting next to you. It wasn't all too hard – especially because Olette always got the best points for Latin – and we were done relatively early, giving us another 20 minutes to do nothing at all.

That's when I got an idea.

"Olette, can I ask you something?"

The girl stared at me as if I'd grown horns.

"Are you actually speaking to me?"

I had the sudden urge to reply with: 'No, like every sane person, I like speaking to the statues of great Roman writers. And I especially like to call them Olette, just to confuse other people.' But just speaking to her made me nervous, especially because of the questions I was going to ask, so I just nodded.

She returned the nod, indicating I was free to ask whatever I wanted.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but why did you fall in love with Axel? I don't mean to insult you or something, but he's clearly a player."

She looked at me rather skeptically.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, I have this friend at the drawing school who likes him. I have a hard time understanding that."

"Hmm… Well, this is kind of embarrassing, really." She blushed a bit, but she wasn't done speaking yet. "Actually, when he asked me out, I was sort of honored. He could take every girl he wanted, and he picked me. The fact that he'd had dozens of girlfriends before and the fact that our relationship probably wouldn't last long didn't matter to me back then. I liked him, but it was just physical attraction."

She paused, thinking about what she was going to say next. "But while hanging out with him, things started to change. There usually was this… though aura surrounding him, but sometimes, he could be very kind and respectful of me. It's hard to describe. There were moments when gentleness would shine through. Gradually, I started to hold those tender moments dear. Those feelings were amazing, but with them, the jealousness arose. I tried to hide it, because I'd heard from other girls that Axel had dumped them when they got too jealous too easily. But he noticed. And he dumped me. Two days later he had a new girlfriend."

There was another pause, and when she began to speak again, her voice was softer. She was lost in thought. "I don't understand why really. I never said anything about him talking or flirting with other girls. I never complained. I never scoffed at girls that I thought were too close to him, hell, I didn't even glare at them. When we were alone together, my jealousy was always forgotten instantly. Yet he ended our relationship right after the jealousness arose. I don't get it."

She trailed off, drowning in nostalgia.

I didn't want to interrupt her daydreaming, but I was really, really wondering about one other thing. After a small inner debate, my curious side won, and I gathered the courage to voice my question. I knew I was going to sound stupid, but oh well. I guess it was a good way to lift the atmosphere.

"Can I ask a stupid question?"

Olette looked distracted, but she was curious about my new question, so she nodded.

"Is it really true that Larxene has an army of girls?"

She burst out in laughter, earning a glare from the teacher, and some students who were still busy with their assignment, but she ignored them.

"You really don't speak to anyone do you?"

I nodded, a bit embarrassed.

"Well, it's true," she said after her giggle fit was over. "Most of the girls join in their first two years. When someone joins, she can count on protection form the whole group. It's really organized and they even have a forum and all. It's also used as a social website. It's also a social network. When some girls get bored, they will plan an event through the forum. Anyone who likes that event can come, though they all have to inform that they'll be there and those who host the event make a list of the attendants. This way, people who dislike someone can easily avoid them. Most of the people are really open though, because Larxene just doesn't like close-minded girls and she can be a real bitch at times."

"Wow, that sounds really cool."

Olette laughed again, this time she kept her voice low though. She didn't want to be thrown out of the class.

"Sorry, no boys allowed."

I laughed with her, Axel momentarily forgotten.

* * *

_A/N: I don't know when chapter 4 will be up, I'm currently still writing it and I hope to bost it befor the end of the month._

_Also, for those who wonder what the songs are: They're just lyrics that helped to inspire me to write everything and lyrics that go well with the music. You should search up the whole song, sometimes the lyrics give hints to what is going to happen next. Don't take it for granted though xD._

_Pleaso don't make me beg for reviews, it makes me feel pathetic.  
_

**Random fact of the day:  
**Butterflies taste with their feet.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: As I promised: the fourth chapter, before 1 July. (Did I write the day right? I remember learning something about dates, but I've totally forgotten)

Thanks to **Sexy-Tacos-Emo-Waffles**, **Miss-Dreev** and **Namichan11** for the reviews! (Hah, I found that sneaky little reply button)

Disclaimer: I don't own KH. The song is Wicked game by Chris Isaak.

* * *

**Chapter IV**

Wicked Game  
_No, I don't want to fall in love  
[This love is only gonna break your heart]  
No, I don't want to fall in love  
[This love is only gonna break your heart]  
With you  
With you  
_-Chris Isaak

The week passed by slowly. Ignoring Axel proved to be harder than I had expected. The first two days were all right. I occasionally saw him in the hallways, but he didn't seem to notice me. Wednesday however, his strategy changed.

I was talking to Olette. Ever since our conversation on Monday, she seemed determined to get me out of my 'don't talk to anyone habit', as she liked to call it. She was planning to introduce me to some of her friends, and I was starting to regret talking to her. She was a nice girl and all, but going from talking to no-one all day to being pushed in the center of attention was a bit too much for me right now.

"You were thinking you regret talking to me, weren't you?"

I looked at her in surprise, ready to deny it, but she stopped me.

"Your face is an open book. I'm sorry, maybe I've been a bit too pushy, but you're missing a big part of your life you know, you should –"

She broke off in the middle of her sentence, her eyes fixated on something right behind me. Before I could turn around to find the problem, there was a hand on my shoulder and a voice in my ear.

"Good morning, Sunshine."

I didn't need to see him to know who this voice belonged to, but my eyes, wide with shock, saw his retreating back anyway. He didn't look back, but I knew he was smiling.

At that moment I made up my mind. I would not, ever, give in to him. He was a player, and I was his newfound toy. And people always tire of new fancy toys, if you just give them some time. I wouldn't give him my heart, insignificant as it was, he wasn't worth it. It was too fragile to use as a plaything. I couldn't let him break it.

Obviously, my plan would backfire. I should have known this, but I was too young, too naïve, too inexperienced. I didn't know better.

I suddenly became aware of Olette staring at me.

"Why do I get the impression none of your friends have a problem with Axel?"

I was able to successfully avoid Axel for the rest of the week. To my surprise, Olette wasn't mad at me. Not for being gay, not for falling for her ex-boyfriend, not even for lying to her. Maybe she recognized herself in me. Maybe she was still a bit shaken from the recent events. Maybe she was afraid of the thought of having Axel near her. Whatever the case may be, she helped me, and I was grateful for that.

Whenever Axel came too close, we would just walk away. One of us was bound to spot him right away. It was his own fault really; who would want a hairdo that made you look like your head was on fire? Like this, he couldn't sneak up to me anymore. He couldn't even get closer than ten meters.

But Saturday was slowly approaching. And I didn't have Olette to help me out _then_.

Actually, my friends _did_ have a problem. And it involved Axel.

I had no idea how Sora could possibly know about That Friday. With all of the juicy details. He couldn't have heard it from Axel, because he was equally surprised when the boy brought That Day up. He could have faked it, but I highly doubted that possibility, because if that was true, he wouldn't while away his Saturday mornings here, but in an acting school. He would make it big.

Sora obviously did not like the fact that I wasn't talking to Axel at all. Axel had yet to say something to me too, but I could feel that he was waiting for the right time, for the minute I wouldn't expect it, the moment I let my guard down. And he was clearly enjoying the wait. He didn't even try to hide his gaze as he was staring down at me.

I glared back angrily. _Remember, you will not give in to him._

I couldn't wipe the smile off his face. That evil, beau- stupid grin.

After another twenty minutes of undergoing being watched while talking idly with Xion, I'd had enough. I couldn't handle wanting to look up every few seconds, constantly reminding myself I would not give in and the muscles I needed to keep the scowl on my face were beginning to ache.

"I'm going to the bathroom."

The whole way I could feel Axel's eyes burning on the back of my head.

I actually did not need to go to the bathroom. What I did need to do was get my head cooled off a bit. The sink water was doing wonders. I really needed to calm myself a bit. I'd made up my mind and I would stick with my decision. Giving in would only hurt me. But doing that when his attention was on me constantly was hard, way too hard. I needed to get him to look away. I needed him to think 'I'll better leave Roxas alone, before he castrates me'. And I had the perfect plan. He only had to say one thing to me. I had a good pair of brains. This would surely work. After a firm nod to myself in the mirror, I left the bathroom.

When I reentered the room, I instantly noticed two things that were _not_ good.

One, all of my friends where standing around Sora. Normally, this would not be worth worrying for. But it was the looks on their faces that made me suspicious. Xion looked a bit worried, but her face was firm, as if she had just made a decision she didn't really liked, but which she knew was best. Namine was softly smiling, while Kairi and Riku were both grinning, and Sora had an impossible huge grin on his face, and from seeing his face, I just knew he had a 'perfect idea'. Which would be really bad for me, without a doubt.

Two, Axel was nowhere to be seen.

I didn't know which one was worse.

Cautiously, I walked back to my table. I was instantly welcomed back by Xion, who demanded my attention with a small cough.

"Sora's holding a picnic in two weeks. The drawing school will be closed due to maintenance, so he thought why not have a small party? You'll come right?"

Sora was known to hold these picnics/parties/meetings/whatever regularly, and if I knew one thing about them, then it was that they were never small. He would invite a whole group and first have a picnic. After the picnic came the fun. You never knew what these activities were, but they were almost never innocent.

By the look on Sora's face, I could see Axel would come, by the twinkle in his eyes I could see I wouldn't like the activities at all, but I had no excuse not to come. I usually attended all of his parties and I knew my friends would only accept 'I have an important skating match' as an excuse, and I was pretty sure they would check.

"Off course," I answered, the tone of my voice contradicting what I was saying.

Sora's smile grew and transformed into an evil grin, stars shining in his eyes with excitement. I would have hit him, but I was interrupted by an even more evil voice.

"Rrroxass, I'm horny."

_Stay calm, Roxas. Remember the plan. Don't let him distract you. Not even with that soft, tainted breath in your neck._

"Well, why don't you go visit your girlfriend then? She'll be happy to help you with your problems." The words held more bitterness than I intended, but I couldn't help it. It was what he did to Olette. It was what he did to me. And even though the words and the venom in them where just part of the plan, I meant everything I said.

Axel's smile dropped. He looked like he was actually surprised I didn't freeze and stare dumbly at him, a slight blush on my cheeks. As if he would never have expected his stupid flirting and his dull pick-up lines to fail.

He sat down and began to draw again. He didn't say a word, even when Sora asked him something, the only reply the little boy got was a grunt.

Needles to say, I was satisfied. I'd originally planned to get Xion on my side, but Sora had been faster. But that didn't matter anymore. The plan was working better than expected.

Olette had finally introduced me to her friends, Hayner and Pence. I was in a good mood, as I hadn't seen Axel for the last few days. But I didn't have the time to enjoy my small victory. I had other problems at the moment. Like the big ass Latin test we had to take next week.

"God, I'm totally going to flunk!"

"Olette, stop being so irritating, I'm getting stressed out and I don't even take Latin classes!" Even though I only knew him for a few days, it was already clear to me Hayner detested homework.

"But Hayner, I really—"

"Guys, shut up! I'm trying to learn here!"

"You're no fun! We're on a break! Just eat your sandwiches. You shouldn't even be thinking of your homework right now," Hayner complained. "Pence, even you are studying. You never do!"

"Oh, Hayner, be quiet! I've got a French test next period. I _need_ to study."

I dropped my head on the table as the discussion around me got more heated.

"Guuuuuuuys… Just. Shut. Up," I whined.

That's how it went for several days, but there was always something small nagging in the back of my head. I didn't really notice it, thinking it were just nerves for the upcoming test. It would go away.

But it didn't go away. I noticed only Friday at noon that I hadn't seen Axel since Saturday. I hadn't even caught a glimpse of his hair. It was almost impossible not to notice him when he was nearby, so it wasn't like I had just overlooked him. _Is he avoiding me? _I shrugged the thought off. It was only my imagination. I would see him on Saturday.

Saturday morning came. No Axel. 10 o' clock went by. No Axel. The clock's minute hand did another full round. No Axel. I should be happy, satisfied even, but I wasn't. If anything, I felt guilt for saying what I had said, however true it was. And even though I would never admit it to myself, I knew that deep down, I really wanted Axel to sit beside me again.

I looked out for Axel on Monday. There was no way he could hide from me. I could remember the times when I was avoiding him and I knew that in the small corridors of our school, it was impossible to not pass each other one way or the other. Even then, I didn't even spot him in the distance once. I did spot Demyx though. He was talking on his mobile phone and when he noticed me, he waved some.

And the next day was the same, as well as the day after, and the day after, though I did see Larxene, typing away on her phone while talking to a girl on her left. She didn't see me though.

As the days went by, it became harder and harder to deny that I wasn't really interested in seeing the redhead again, that I only checked every hallway for him because I was worried he was sick or something and not coming to school. It was hard to tell myself that I really, really didn't miss him. It was becoming hard to pretend that this was just a slight crush, or that I liked him only a little bit. And most of all, it was hard to not stop my plan.

I didn't want to tell Olette about my problems. It was just impossible that she didn't feel hurt when I talked about Axel, when I said how he went out of his way to annoy me. I knew she was sad about it, but there are things you can't hide from your friends, even if you didn't know them for a long time.

Friday, Hayner had enough of it.

"Roxas, what's wrong with you?" Even though he didn't sound too nice, I knew he was worried. But I was not in the mood right now.

"What?"

"You've been behaving rather strangely this week, Roxas," Olette replied.

"Don't think we don't notice. When you come to school in the morning, you're happy, during the day you look around, searching the whole time, and then when you leave, you're almost depressed. What are you up to mate?"

I hadn't really noticed my own behavior, but now I was thinking about it, Hayner was right.

"It's just…" I sighted, not sure what to say. "Well, it's Axel. I was rather harsh to him a while ago, and I haven't seen him since, not even at school, maybe he's skipping, I don't know, it's just so…" I sighted again.

"Well, he's been coming to school, I've seen him," Pence said.

"Yeah, and he had a pretty big fight with his girlfriend at school, about a week ago. I'm surprised you haven't heard about it. It was kind of the talk of the school," Olette agreed.

"Well, sorry for having no friends except for you guys."

"No, but really, you should have heard about it. They broke up soon after, it's hard to say who dumped who, I guess it was sort of a mutual agreement that they didn't like each other anymore," Olette went on. "Though I doubt he ever liked her," she added bitterly.

And I acually felt guilty. He'd gone out of his way to not see my face. He must hate me. And all that just because of some stupid comment I made. I really felt like a dick right now. But oh well, that just showed how sincere he'd been about me. And then I remembered Olette's words, her bitterness seaping through my skin, until it invaded my veins. _As if he'd ever been sincere to anyone about liking them._

Saturday morning found me somewhere in a park in Duffel, attending a stupid picnic. I was sleep deprived, because I had been up almost all night, thinking about what I would do if a certain someone would come and what I would do if he didn't come. He'd promised Sora to come, right? But he'd gone out of his way to avoid me for two weeks; it probably wouldn't hurt him to skip this picnic. Then I was wondering if I wanted him to come, and soon after I found myself denying that the answer was yes. When I had finally fallen asleep, my dreams were plagued by red hair, teardrop tattoos and piercing green eyes.

I couldn't help but to hold my breath when I finally, finally, saw those bright eyes in reality, his cocky grin in place. And I could feel the anger welling up. Because of him, as he just stood there, like he just hadn't totally avoided me for two weeks. Because of me, as I was incredibly happy to see him again.

* * *

_A/N: The next chapter will take a while as I'm going on a vacation and I probably won't be able to write. But then when I come back I've got to get a surgary to remove my wisdom teeth, which is kind of bad for me because it'll probably hurt a lot, but good for you because I'm going to sit at home for a whole week with nothing to do but to write some Akuroku._

_So expect chapter 5 in about four weeks._

**Random Fact of the Day:  
**Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself.  
_. _


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Sorry for the wait guys! Actually, this has been finished for more than a week (maybe even two!) but I never had the chance to edit it.

BUT it's extra long!

Thanks again to** Sexy-Tacos-Emo-Waffles **for reviewing! (And by the way, this is the chapter were Roxas gets jealous!)

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom hearts. Any other people appearing in this story are mine though, but they don't really matter. The song is Wicked Game again br Chris Isaak, because the song just really suits this story. (Everything he sings is true for this story, though some things are from Axel's point of view and some things won't happen untill much later - and some things are really out of context)

So on with the story!

* * *

**Chapter V**

Wicked Game (2) _  
__What a wicked game you play  
To make me feel this way  
What a wicked thing to do  
To let me dream of you  
What a wicked thing to say  
You never felt this way  
What a wicked thing to do  
To make me dream of you  
And I don't wanna fall in love  
[This love is only gonna break your heart]  
And I don't want to fall in love  
[This love is only gonna break your heart]  
_-Chris Isaak

I could barely suppress the groan when Sora announced what we would do after the picnic. His version of some children's games we used to play. Of all the activities we could do, he had to pick _that_ one. I could still feel the trauma from the last time. Normally I didn't really care about these games, but that was when I was surrounded by people I knew. There were almost no familiar faces this time around, and of course, there was The Axel Problem.

"Sora, don't you dare use this to your advantage to get me and Axel together," I whispered harshly in his ear when he sat back down.

"But Roxas, that would completely ruin my plan," he whined, "But all right. And especially for you, I'll tell Axel to keep it down too. On one condition." he held up his index finger to emphasize his point. I nodded hesitantly, raising one eyebrow. "You can't hit anyone like you did last time."

I laughed. Really, this was his condition?

"I mean it Roxas, no slapping this time around."

I snorted at his use of words.

"Yeah, Sora, I get it, no beating people up."

I rolled my eyes. This was going to be easy. So what if I'd hit someone a while back? The guy had just _asked_ for it.

That reminded me of another idiot who was winking at some girl from Sora's school at the moment. The girl blushed in return, a small smile playing on her lips, before she turned to whisper all excited with her friends when Axel looked elsewhere. _Ugh,_ _girls_, I thought while picking at a daisy absentmindedly. Well, it was not like I really cared.

"Roxas, you shouldn't abuse flowers, the poor things have done nothing wrong." Axel plucked the daisy out of my hand and stroked my cheek with it. I pushed his hand away, giving him a harsh look.

"Yes, that's a deadly glare, Roxas, one of your most prized possessions. Now tell me why you look like you got out of your bed on the wrong side."

"Well, you just disappear for two weeks and then act as if nothing happened, I seriously thought you had some kind of illness or something," I blamed, jaws clenched. I hadn't, but he didn't need to know that.

A small smile adorned his lips, and for once it wasn't his mocking grin, no. His smile almost appeared to be genuinely happy. I didn't have time to wonder about it, because he ruffled my hair and by the time I could jerk my head away, it had vanished, almost as if it had only been an illusion. I blamed it on my need for sleep.

"I knew you'd miss me."

So that was why. It was all just part of his stupid game. Just another way to play with me.

"It was nice being your entertainment. Hope you enjoyed it," I grumbled through my teeth, making sure my voice was laced with hatred to overshadow the sudden disappointment.

I stomped off to go sit with Xion and Namine, about five meters away. It wasn't as far off as I actually wanted it to be, but at least I could sit with my back to Axel. The nice thing about having female friends was that they always had something to talk about and what I needed the most now was some idle chatter to keep my thoughts occupied. I just wanted to get this day over with. Apparently they were having the usual girl chat.

"No really? She can't be Sarah's best friend, I mean, come on, their personalities are just opposites," Namine chirped. "We were in the same class when I was eleven. Roxas, you know, right?"

I met Namine for the first time when I was six. When you're in the same class, you're bound to get friendly with each other, and when she joined the drawing academy when she was eight, we became fast friends. I'd seen her less and less when secondary school separated us though.

"Uh, who exactly are you talking about?"

"Anais, that one girl that was extremely good at ball sports, but she hated gymnastics. Xion claims she's Sarah's best friend."

"Oh, come on, you make it look like it's some kind of sham. I go to Sarah's school, and the girl is constantly talking about Anais."

I rolled my eyes. Girls. Sometimes I just couldn't understand them. Knowing that this conversation wouldn't be enough to stop my mind from wandering, I decided to study my surroundings. It was almost December now and luckily it was quite warm for the time of the year. There were only a few teens wearing thick jackets. The grass was covered with fallen leaves, but there were enough picnic blankets for everyone to sit on. It was rare for Sora to be so organized, but I had the impression he'd got some help from Riku.

The park was usually flooded by people on sunny days like these, but the locals knew Sora – him being a local too – and they turned on their heels upon seeing the boy, in order to find another, calmer spot.

While getting lost in thought about grannies grumbling things along the lines of "youngsters these days… If I'd tried to do something like that, then…", Sora stood up and asked if anyone knew a good game to start with.

"_Seven Minutes in Heaven_!" a girl shouted, eyeing Axel.

Kairi looked at her as if she was a speaking cow before shouting back: "Shannon, we're at a public park. Do you see any closets in here?"

"Well, we could play _Spin the Bottle_," the girl beside Shannon, who looked a bit smarter, answered.

Sora nodded and turned to the whole group. "All right, _Spin the Bottle_ it will be. Everyone, go sit in a large circle! Make sure there's place for everybody!"

While the teens sauntered about to obey the orders, Sora took a beer bottle out of his bag and placed it somewhere in the middle of the forming circle. Then he pointed to the girl that was still sitting next to Shannon. "Debbie, since you suggested it, you go first."

Debbie was on her feet in an instant, but Sora motioned her to wait a bit.

"I'm pretty sure you all know the rules, but just to be clear: Player one spins the bottle and has to kiss the person the bottle points at. This is player two. Then player two has to spin it and has to kiss a third person or, when it points to player one again, he has to kiss them on the mouth. When the bottle points three times at the same couple, it's a French kiss. Twenty seconds at least. You can refuse, but the group will give you a suiting punishment."

Sora went to sit in the circle before nodding to Debbie to indicate she could spin. She was disappointed to see it pointed to a boy sitting beside Axel.

The game was kind of boring when you didn't know who was kissing who, but it was interesting to see people try to hide their disappointment or joy when the bottle stopped. Though I could go without all the longing glances some girls casted towards Axel and I would really rather that idiot there didn't make that girlish squeak when the bottle pointed to him. Ahum, back to the point. The game was quite uneventful. I had to kiss Namine, Riku and some random girl once, and then Xion on the mouth, but it wasn't like I hadn't done those things before in other games. The only couple who had to do a French kiss refused, and even though the punishment was kind of funny, it could only amuse you for so long.

A quick glance at Sora made it clear he was thinking of moving to the next event when a little, girlish shriek vibrated through the air. When I looked up, I could see Axel standing up and walking towards Debbie.

_Oh, god. Another lovesick puppy gets to kiss the beautiful boy. I wish you luck when you realize the heartbreaking truth that he's already kissed six girls today._

"Who's going to time it?" Shannon asked.

_What?_

"I'll do it," Sora said, stopwatch already in his hand by the time Axel flopped down next to the girl.

"Ready, start."

I could hear the watch beep as Axel slowly bowed down, turning Debbie's chin up with two fingers. I didn't want to see this. He softly nibbled at her lower lip, before caressing it with his tongue, playfully letting only the tip inside her mouth and pulling back not soon after, probably when their tongues touched. I could just turn away. He grinned when his tongue darted out again, slowly tracing her top lip and it disappeared into her mouth to fully begin the kiss. He was enjoying it. Somehow I felt like this really wasn't fair. He was starting quietly, probably to make it more enjoyable for the girl, but she'd enjoy it anyway. So why couldn't he just _stop caressing her cheek like he actually cared._

Shouldn't those twenty seconds be over by now? Twenty seconds wasn't very long, not even when you were holding your breath. Well, it could be long, for example when you were performing a spin, twenty seconds seemed like an eternity. Especially when you were only a beginner, it was very easy to get dizzy. And Debbie had been spinning long enough already.

To my dismay, Axel made no attempts to stop when the watch beeped. But he did open his eyes and stared right at me.

Someone whistled and Debbie's friends were laughing, but it was a nervous sound and their postures emitted jealousy.

After what felt like an eternity, Axel finally stopped. She got one last peck, one last kiss before he smiled and turned away. But she didn't get even one glance, because the whole time, his eyes were locked with mine.

Did anyone else notice how the world suddenly seemed so quiet, and the seconds lasted for hours, while I tried to fight my blush and get one eyebrow to rise in a questioning way, looking unfazed by it all?

Sora said something, but the words just flew through me. It looked important, probably something about the next game, because Axel turned his attention to him. There was a pleased smile on his face and the fact that I didn't know the meaning behind it was strangely frightening.

* * *

_I wrote a letter to my mother._ The game was as easy as it was boring. It was just another version of _duck duck goose_, but we had to sing a few lines and instead of saying 'goose', a handkerchief was dropped behind someone. Sora's addition was that you had to kiss the 'handkerchief person' – his words, not mine – when you normally only had to tag them. The kiss could go anywhere, making this game slightly more innocent. It was just something to pass the time, a nice intervention. Some sprinting would do me good and I was waiting for the handkerchief to land behind me while dutifully singing: "_A tisket, a tasket, A green and yellow basket, I wrote a letter to my mother, on the way I dropped it, and one of you has picked it up and put it in your pocket. Not you, not you, not you, not you…". _Unfortunately, _I wrote a letter to my mother_ was not ruled by fate, but by the arbitrariness of the players.

I should be amused by how girls on high heels failed miserably at outrunning Axel and other girls trying to look as if they were doing their best to run away, while they were just waiting for Axel to catch up with them. They would be 'out', but who cared? As long as they got their kiss. Yes, I should be trying to hold back my giggles, like Namine was currently doing, but I only felt annoyed with those fools.

More and more girls had to sit in the middle of the circle and the contrast with the few boys was almost comical. Or just plain stupid, depending on your point of view.

Some guys seemed anxious, not comfortable now the probability they had to kiss or would be kissed by another male was increasing. _Hello, you can just kiss a hand if you're such a homophobe. We've been playing spin the bottle like, twenty minutes ago._ Maybe I'd been too bored to notice someone being ill at ease then.

I got the urge to seriously hit someone, but at that moment, Riku threw the handkerchief on my head and ran away. I directly started a chase. I'd been playing _I wrote a letter to my mother _for as long as I could remember and things like this had almost become a reflex. Riku excelled in athletics, but during ice skating training, I often had to do spurts and I was a fast runner, too. If the circle had been any longer, I would have failed without a doubt, but as it was, we were a match for each other. The fact that Riku stumbled and lost a bit of his speed was a great help too. Some people were urging us on and someone yelled my name, but I had no time to think about it.

I was closing in on Riku, but at the same time, my spot on the grass was coming closer too. I reached out to grab his wrist – an easy target to kiss once caught – but the taller boy ducked away and the following moment he was sitting. I stopped beside him to catch my breath.

"Ah, I shouldn't have chosen you, that was way too close," Riku panted, "But you looked like such an easy target, being so lost in thought."

That's when it occurred to me Riku had stopped me from hitting the boy next to me. He'd stopped me from breaking my deal with Sora. I suppressed the urge to thank him, because he wouldn't get it anyway and settled for a nod before I absentmindedly started to walk, not really hearing the people sing.

Really, was it that hard to not hit anyone? Did I have so little self control? I put the handkerchief down behind a boy I didn't know and sprinted away. When I looked back, I saw the boy wasn't running, but walking with a slow pace. When he noticed me looking, he made a face that just screamed: 'What, you thought I'd run to kiss you? You stupid fag.' And it took all of my willpower to just start running again.

By the time I sat down again, I was too irritated to notice the others had started playing again. Too annoyed to notice Axel had taken the place next to me. I hid my surprise with a scowl when he started to talk to me.

"Why didn't you encourage me?"

"Why should I?" The grass under my feet had suddenly become unusually interesting, but it was way too green and lively for my liking.

"So mean, I did encourage you."

I huffed, but didn't answer. Would those stupid blades of grass start to burn if I stared at them for long enough? I could only try. Anything would do to take my mind away from how close Axel was sitting. Why didn't he just go away? I wasn't in the mood for this.

There was no way Axel could have missed the way I suddenly held my breath when his shoulder brushed against my shoulder blade. Exactly how close was he sitting?

The grass clearly didn't want to burn, and looked up in the hope to find something more interesting. I found myself staring at a pair of grey eyes. They belonged to a blonde girl who was watching us as if we were a high school drama, which was quite ironical, because my life sure felt like one at this moment. Such a pity I hated them.

I actually knew this girl – at least I recognized her face, I had no idea about her name. I'd seen her before on a few of Sora's picnics and unlike many other girls, she was wearing shoes that allowed you to run, which meant she must have had a decent pair of brains. But she still had no business with us. Wasn't there some kind of social code that said: 'don't stare?' So annoying.

"Glaring won't get you far with the girls you know?" I could hear Axel say, his voice way too loud in my ears, before he whispered: "Or do you prefer some other kind of attention?" I tried not to think about the fact that he didn't need to lean in to make every whispered word reach my ears perfectly. I hoped he didn't feel me stiffen a bit.

"Didn't Sora tell you to leave me alone?"

As per usual, Axel instantly had an answer ready.

"Aw, always so grumpy. It's so damn refreshing."

Before I could think of some witty comment, I got interrupted by Sora, who suggested playing another game – not that we had a choice. I was relieved to hear an excuse to not talk to Axel again for a few minutes, but my face fell instantly when I heard his next words.

"There's a little story behind the following game. We have to form a circle, while one person stands in the middle. This person will be the prince, gender doesn't matter."

_No, not that game._

"The prince has to find the princess, one of the people sitting in the circle. To find out if someone is the princess, you have to sit on their lap. If that person is the princess, they'll have to kiss you – it doesn't really matter where. The princess' symbol is a rose, but that doesn't really matter either. But the prince will have to watch out. Amongst the people sitting in the circle, there's only one princess, there are three jesters and everybody else is a soldier. The jester's symbol is a sundew. When you sit on the lap of a jester, they'll lick your neck. The soldier's symbol is a cactus. When you sit on their lap, they'll tickle you. When the princess is found, she becomes the prince for the next round, the previous prince chooses a new princess, new jesters and soldiers and the game starts again."

I used to like this game. I was quite good at it, actually, always had been. All you had to do was close your eyes and listen in what direction 'princess' is muttered. Then you just opened your eyes and use your brains – most people didn't randomly choose a princess.

Being kissed by the person who played the princess wasn't too horrible. There weren't many places you could kiss from behind, and most were harmless. Being tickled wasn't that bad either, I had a real violent reaction to tickling, like when I was young, Sora only had to say 'I'm going to tickle you' and I'd be laughing. I didn't mind it though.

And until recently – last picnic to be exact – I had never had the misfortune to accidentally sit on a joker. I'd never really worried about it, because, what could be so bad with having your neck licked? It would be gross, but not the end of the world.

And that's when I found out my neck was very sensitive.

And that's when I hit someone.

And that was why Sora had made that stupid deal, and why we were playing this stupid game. I should cruelly murder him in his sleep and write 'haha, that was a cruel game' and 'too bad you lost' on his head with a sharpie that couldn't be erased.

So there I was, sitting in the circle, tickling everyone who sat on my lap, hoping that this game would be over soon, while praying to God that I wouldn't be chosen as a princess.

Apparently, God wasn't in the mood to grant wishes today. Maybe he just hated me. I made a promise with myself to ask the devil for help next time.

I kissed the prince on the cheek when she sat on my lap. It had taken her quite some time to find the princess, and during that time I had recognized her as the high-school-drama-good-shoes-nice-brains girl who stared too much. I had to admit that I was guilty of the staring crime, too, but at least no one noticed it.

So the current flow of events found me standing in the middle of the circle, playing a game I thoroughly hated, while I was listening for a whispered 'princess' from the blonde girl. I turned in that direction, but only opened my eyes when she said so.

I should have known that the moment I opened my eyes, I would be staring at his piercing green eyes, but I still cursed inwardly. He was the only person close enough to the whispered 'princess' to logically hold that title. Damn girls.

"_So, did you make Axel the princess?" Anne asked her the moment she sat down._

_Britt sighed. She could have known Anne's reaction. Ever since she's seen Axel, she had been infatuated with the boy. She seemed convinced that he was actually a model or rock star in disguise, which had been funny at first, but now just… stupid._

"_You know the boy? The new prince?" _

_Anne looked at her questioningly, a bit irritated that Britt had dared to change the subject._

"_What about him?" she half snarled, not really interested, before she resumed staring at Axel, hoping he would look up at her and get lost in her eyes. He was staring at the boy in the middle circle though, his expression a bit calculating._

"_He always comes to Sora's picnics, though I think he doesn't always enjoy them. He's the boy who slapped Ive last time. It seems like he has some kind of weird relationship with Axel," Britt answered calmly, asking herself why she ever thought coming here with Anne would be a good idea._

_Anne on her part, didn't like this new information, especially since Axel was still looking at the boy. She suddenly hoped he wouldn't be the princess in the next round. She didn't really want to see him kiss a boy. Her eyes became slits._

"_What kind of relationship?"_

_By now Britt was beginning to doubt if her decision to tell this all to Anne had been a good one. _

"_I don't really know. Sora made a deal with the boy though, I don't know what it is about, but I heard Axel's name."_

"_So, did you make Axel the princess?" Back to the first subject. The girl was so predictable._

"_Who knows?" Britt shrugged. "But this will probably be interesting to watch," Britt added, and she continued to stare at the two boys as if they were a funny drama._

I sighted as I sat down on Axels lap, I really didn't want to do this, but at least I wouldn't be tickled. That would count as some kind of bright side to it all, right? _Better get this over with quickly._

For a short moment, nothing happened. Then I could feel long arms around my waist, trapping around my belly to hold me in place. I fought the urge to turn my head. No way in hell I would give him something more interesting to kiss than my cheek.

And there was no way in hell I would have expected what happened next. He slowly, oh, so very slowly, dragged his tongue from a bit above my shoulder-blade, over my neck, over my pulse, up to my ear. I was sure that he knew about the chills running down my spine and that he was aware of that stupid little shiver my body made.

So I did the first thing that came to my mind.

I turned around and hit him.

And oh, I wished I hadn't.

The aim had been a bit off. Instead of bitch-slapping him on his cheek, I had hit his collarbone, and the spot was turning slightly red. I stared at him in mild shock. That must have hurt. Why didn't he let me go? He still had his arms around my back. I couldn't get away like this.

"Roxas!" Sora shouted from the other side of the circle.

_Oh, shii…_

"Roxas, I thought we had a deal," Sora tried to be serious, but he couldn't hide his excitement. This was not good.

"What should I do now, you even slapped _Axel_." _Yes, I know, no need to empathize that._

"Oh, I know," Sora sounded like he had just stumbled on the most amazing idea in the whole universe. Why, oh why did I ever come to this picnic? Oh yeah, I was kind of forced to by him and Xion. I really should murder him in his sleep. It's a pity I couldn't do the same to Xion. Xemnas would chastise me, Oh, how happy I was he wouldn't murder me, no, just some good old torture; I was only useful to him while I was alive.

I noticed Sora had stopped talking, so I turned around. He was waiting for that. He probably wanted to see my reaction.

"It looks like the only way to solve this is for you to kiss him."

_What. The. Hell… No. Way._

_

* * *

_

_A/N: First of all, Xemnas and Xion are not in a relationship. One of my friends was reading this and she was like: "You have a Xemnas and Xion pairing?" That would be totally weird. Their relationship will be explained later in the story._

_I was going to write a oneshot for Akuroku day, but I'm never going to finish it in time, blah. Maybe I'll finish it someday._

_Also: I am looking for a beta reader whose mother tongue is English so they can get some faults out of my writing. Even though I read it three times, I'm sure there are still lots of faults. Anyone interested?_

**Random fact of the Day:**  
All the swans in England are property of the Queen.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I'm soooo sorry for not updating until now! I have this chapter ready for about... 25 days? But I was waiting for it to get beta-ed, but I never got a response... so there may be quite a few mistakes.

I promise that the next chapter will be out in two weeks.

Thanks to: **HellzLittleAngel**, **Sexy-Tacos-Emo-Waffles**, **CocoaButter** and **Wishful Galaxy** for reviewing! Four reviews, that's my record so far, thank you guys!

Disclaimer: I do not own kingdom hearts. The lyrics are from Promise me Everything by Katra

* * *

**Chapter VI**

_Falling, wishing__  
For every fallen tear there is a broken dream  
-_Katra

"Screw me if I'm wrong, but don't you just want to kiss me?" A whisper in my ear.

_All right. So I got two answers now? Screw you or kiss you? I'll give you my answer._

Two seconds later, another red mark stained his cheek. This time, he made a small 'ah' sound, and he flexed his jaw, but his hands only tightened around my waist.

There was another "Roxas!" coming from Sora at the other side of the circle, and I knew I didn't really have a choice. I had learned long ago that you didn't defy Sora on his picnics. It was sure to backfire, and in this situation Sora wouldn't even need to think long to get an idea to ruin my life. A few words with Axel and it was over. I would never live it down if he knew I was really attracted to him.

So I took a deep breath, closed my eyes tight and leaned forward to press my lips lightly against his.

I had planned for the kiss to end as quickly as possible. Axel must have known that. One of his hands was holding my chin in an instant, his long fingers keeping my head in place. Before I could react and push him away, he adjusted his other arm, pulling me up his lap until I was pressed against him. My eyes shot open in shock and I tried to pull away, but he was stronger than I had expected. My arms were trapped between our bodies and my mouth was caught by his lips. There was no escape.

I had fantasized about this so many times. Almost two years ago, when I had first met him. Those times when I only knew his name and those green eyes. When my mind had been full of teenage romance stories. I had imagined he would kiss me. Late at night, when I felt lonely, I had imagined he would hold me. Reality had caught up soon though. Things like that didn't happen in real life. I couldn't have a boyfriend, especially if that boyfriend could so easily break my heart.

It hadn't stopped me from dreaming. I'd dreamed of kissing Axel countless times. It was never like this though. This wasn't what I wanted.

I was pulled back to reality by a tongue dragging over my bottom lip, silently asking for entrance.

I kept my lips pressed together. This was so unfair. I had longed for this to happen so long ago. When Axel had still been someone I'd seen once or twice. When he was still that perfect dream boy. But the truth was cruel like that. The tongue that was now so lovingly urging me to react, would be on different lips the moment he tired of this stupid game. It had been on a different mouth not an hour ago.

It made me want to cry.

It made me want to run away the instant he let go.

But I couldn't, because it would show him how much I actually cared. He would never leave me alone if he knew. He would kiss me again, go out with me and then break my heart, like he had done with so many girls before.

Axel must have sensed there was something wrong, because he pulled away a bit, loosening his grip on me slightly. Enough for me to pull away and give him a blank look before returning to the middle of the circle. I had to continue the game. Time might have looked like it had stopped for me, but it hadn't for anybody else.

So I looked around the circle for the princess again. I could see 'smart girl' looking as if her drama had just taken an unexpected but interesting turn. I shot her one of my dirtiest glares. She seemed to be thinking about how she should take the turn of events. Or whether or not to shut up the girl beside her, who was whining and looking at me as if I was dirt. I wasn't entirely sure.

I could see other people staring at me too. Sora with a big grin on his lips, others with big eyes. Some looked jealous, some people were whispering and a few were looking at me with utter disgust. And that hurt.

I should look for the princess. I turned to face Axel again, though he was the last person I wanted to see right now. But the princess must've been there somewhere.

And that's when I heard it. A boy talking to a girl, not far away from Axel. He wasn't whispering like the others, and even though he wasn't speaking too loud either, he knew I could hear him. And he knew well the effects his words would have on me.

"See, I told you he's a fag. He even forced Axel to kiss him. It's a good thing Thomas made it clear he didn't like such behavior when he found out the boy was a queer. Who knows what would have happened if he hadn't?"

And that did it. I was used to be called names, I was used to the soft whispers behind my back, but I couldn't take it anymore. Not after all that had just happened. Not when someone mentioned Thomas, someone I had once called my friend.

At that moment, I didn't care about what people would think anymore. It was just too much, so I stomped off, took my bike and went home.

I think I heard Sora call my name. I think I heard someone laugh.

* * *

My mobile started ringing again. I didn't need to look at the caller ID to know it was Sora. I sighed and took my gloves out of my bag. The ringing was annoying, but I couldn't turn of my phone – my mom wanted to be able to contact me at all times – and hitting ignore wasn't an option either; Sora would just call again. He'd been trying to get in touch with me for ten minutes already.

After going home, I'd packed my bag immediately and I'd gone to the rink, hoping to relax a bit, but from the moment said rink came in sight, the ringing had begun and it hadn't stopped nagging me since. There was no way I could relax like this. I took the phone as it stopped for a few seconds before starting to ring again. Better get over with it.

"Look So-"

"Roxas, I'm so sorry! I really didn't know Matthias knew Thomas!" I could feel an incredibly long rant coming, so I decided to intervene.

"That's not what I'm mad about. _That_ wasn't your fault."

There was a small pause.

"It's Axel, isn't it?"

"How could you? You know how I feel about this, Sora. We've talked this over already and concluded you were too optimistic."

"I thought we concluded you were too pessimistic?"

"Sora, you don't know him. You don't have a friend whose heart got broken by him and believe me, you don't want to get one."

"How do you know this isn't different?"

"Because this is reality Sora!"

Here was a small pause again and Sora's voice was calculating, which caught me off guard.

"That friend of yours, she's a girl right."

"Yes…" I couldn't think of why this was important.

"And he's never gone out with any boys."

"No…" Even though it hadn't been a question and Sora had sounded one undred percent sure, I still answered.

"See! It's different this time."

"Look Sora, I highly doubt tha—Hey, how do you know he's only had girlfriends?" This wasn't information Sora should know.

"Bye Roxas!"

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

When I called again, his phone was turned off. _Stupid boy who doesn't have an overprotecting mother._

Bonk.

… _Auw_.

That was the third time I'd fallen in five minutes. It was pathetic I couldn't even do a simple camel spin anymore. It was all Sora's fault. Why did he have to say that? And how the hell did he know so sure Axel had only dated girls? I knew, because I'd put effort in finding it out. For about half a year I'd overheard all conversations about Axel I could and there was not a single one that had hinted at Axel being bisexual or having ever dated men. I'd asked Olette about it and even she didn't know for sure, so she'd asked Demyx for me.

But even though Sora had many connections, I was quite sure he didn't know anyone as close to Axel and I knew for a fact he couldn't have asked Axel directly. He hated asking people things like that. Instead, he liked to get information through other people and gossip. He was a sneaky bastard like that.

I stood up and did a sit spin this time, only to fall on my ass again. Well, the bright side was that falling from a sitting position didn't hurt.

_Really I'm pathetic. Sora's words shouldn't mean as much to me. How come a small conversation like this could turn the walls I build to protect me into frail glass? This just couldn't be different. Otherwise he wouldn't kiss people in front of me. But he did look at me while doing so. Maybe he imagined – no. That couldn't be. He just wanted to make me jealous. _

_But didn't he hate jealous people?_

"Roxas!"

I had to blink twice and shake my head before I remembered where I was. By that time the girl who had called out to me was already standing in front of me. Sophia.

"What're you doin' there? You fell? You'll freeze your ass of if you don't get up, man." She smiled and stretched out her hand to help me get up.

Half a minute later, we were sitting on a bench at the side of the rink, both with a coke in our hands.

I had known Sophia my whole life. If I had to describe her with one word, it would be contradiction. She walked like a ballerina and spoke like a boy. She never got good grades, but nobody would even think of calling her dumb. She would walk against a door or a lamppost every week, but when something had happened, she would have seen it. She was good at reading people, but to the dismay of many teachers, she hated books.

It wasn't long before she asked me what was wrong and I told her. I left out quite a few details. The story of my life since September was long enough as it was already. Even though we saw each other at least twice a week, we never talked about our personal lives that often.

"Why the fuck did you run away from that party? Way to show that bastard you totally care!" she cried after I finished my story. Did I tell you she liked swearing? She was a cussing ballerina. She always called Axel 'bastard'. It was a special nickname she reserved for players.

I sighed, not wanting to recall the events.

"After we kissed," the words felt strange, "Some guy made a stupid remark about Thomas." Maybe I'd left out a little too many details.

Sophia was silent for a while.

"You really should stop caring about what happened with that asshole. It's almost been two fuckin' years."

I bit my lip. She immediately sensed I didn't want to talk about it.

"Back on topic. Even though I want to beat some sense into you for really starting to like that bastard, I think I kinda know what's happenin'. I think, from what I've heard, that that bastard has a fear of commitment."

I stared at her. Just stared.

"Sophia, he's a player, how can he be afraid of commitment?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Roxas, do you actually know what a fear of commitment is? It's bein' afraid of a real, long-lastin' relationship. And now, has he had any of those relations?"

I silently shook my head.

"See, that's why he made you jealous, but couldn't stand jealous girls. He probably didn't want these girls to fall in love with him, because he could see the relationships could never become serious and he didn't want to hurt them. So when they get really jealous, like, the kinda love-like jealous, he dumps them, 'cause he doesn't want to get their hopes up. Seems like he failed though, from what that Olette girl told you."

I totally did not understand that reasoning. Wasn't jealousy just jealousy? I nodded anyway. I could never follow her line of thought. Nothing new.

"Roxas? I have another question."

I turned my attention back to her.

"Don't you normally use Saturday midday for studying? Don't your exams start in like, two weeks?"

Oh, fuck. I totally forgot about _that_ monster.

* * *

A/N: =3 a first kiss! And Sophia's a little, cute girl with a big, flaming temper. Don't trust her Roxas!

Fanfiction is being a bitch, always deleting my lines.

Reviews please?

**Random fact of the day:**  
There are more chickens than people in the world.

That's... quite frightening.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I promised you you wouldn't have to wait too long, didn't I? Even though it is a bit short and kind of a real filler chapter, but next chapter will be something to look forward to.

Thanks to **Dragonfly-Star**, **Nitrea** and **HellzLittleAngel** for reviewing! I'm sorry if I didn't reply to everyone. FanFiction was acting a bit weird and didn't let me reply.

Warning: Latin words are used in this chapter. Don't worry if you don't know what ala or ara means, because it really isn't important. Especially don't worry if you don't know the difference between a gerundium and a gerundivum, because even thoug I study Latin, I don't get it either. I only know that it is some kind of grammatical construction.

Something else: I finally convinced my best friend to make a fanfiction account! Her stories are awesome, so go check it out: fanfiction .net/u/2565232/Mirit (For some reason, I can't find her if I type 'mirit' in the searching engine, so I put up a link. o.O)

Disclaimer: Again, I don't own Kingdom Hearts. The second song is _Rikki, don't lose that number_ by Steely Dan. I have no idea who made the first song. I only know it's from the 16th century and based on a Latin manuscript from 1287. You can google it if you're really interested.

**

* * *

Chapter VII**

Gaudamus Igitur  
_Gaudeamus igitur  
Juvenes dum sumus.  
__Post jucundam juventutem  
Post molestam senectutem  
Nos habebit humus._

_Vivat academia!  
Vivant professores!  
Vivat membrum quodlibet;  
Vivant membra quaelibet;  
Semper sint in flore._

To be honest, I didn't hate the exams. Saying that I loved them was going overboard, but I certainly lacked the aversion Hayner felt towards them.

I had to say, learning all day was boring, but the exams had their good sides too. Even I, who never got good grades during the year, was almost always ready by 5 o' clock. I had my own way of studying: usually, I didn't really do my best, but about two weeks before the start of the exams, I started cramming. Olette said my methods would lead to my 'doom', but that's probably only because she gave up on getting Hayner to study and she needed _someone_ to grumble at.

Another great thing about the exams was that Saix never called. If he didn't call, I didn't have to do any odd jobs, which only resulted in me having even more free time. The reason he never called wasn't because I wasn't needed, but rather because he wanted to please my parents. After all, the exams were supposed to be 'a busy and stressful time'.

Regardless of how bad or how good the exams were, there was one thing that didn't fit into them: love. Luckily, Axel seemed to think so too, because he didn't bother me. I never went to the drawing academy during the exams so I had more time to study, and whenever he saw me in the hallways, he just waved.

Sophia thought I should use this opportunity to forget all about him. She supported my opinion that a relationship with Axel wouldn't last, rather than Sora's 'You'll see, it will all work out' attitude. She had to admit that I was different than his previous girlfriends, but she doubted he could last longer than a month in a relation.

* * *

It was the second day of exams and I was already bored out of my mind. That was the bad part about the exams. Maybe I should let Hayner convince me to call them evil after all.

I couldn't call Olette or Pence, because they were studying, and even though I could call Hayner, he had house arrest – the last resort his parents had to get him to study – so our conversation would always be something like:

"I'm so bored."

"Yeah, me too."

And that was it.

I had thought about having a movie marathon, but the vedeotheque was closed on Tuesdays (seriously, who wanted to see a movie on a _Tuesday_?) and even though I resorted to seeing movies every time I had exams, I didn't even have one movie at home. I would never learn.

So my life would be boring and uneventful for two weeks. The highlight of my days was waiting for Olette, Pence and Hayner to finish, because apparently, I worked really fast, and I was always the first one to finish my exams.

Oh, and frikandel**(*)**. Never forget the important decision of whether or not I should buy a frikandel on my way home.

* * *

Life was really dull these days. I couldn't talk to my new friends out of school. I had banned Axel from my mind. I had too much free time. Things were back to how they were before Axel had forced his way into my life.

Back then, the silence in my room had always been comforting, a place where I didn't have to pretend. Now, it just felt… empty.

That wasn't how it was supposed to feel.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I noted that it wasn't supposed to feel like anything at all.

* * *

Sometimes I asked myself why the hell I ever choose to study Latin. Seriously, I couldn't see how knowing that _ala_ meant wing and _ara_ meant altar would ever benefit me. Or even better – worse? – how knowing the difference between a _gerundium_ and a _gerundivum_ would ever be able to save my life. I would probably never know, because I had absolutely no idea what the difference was. And that was exactly the problem.

Ugh. Latin exams were way too difficult.

I hadn't really had enough sleep, because I'd stayed up late to study. For once I _had_ studied past five. Too bad I couldn't remember a thing.

* * *

_Ah, Latin's finally done_, I thought, and threw myself on me bed, successfully faceplanting in my physics books I had strategically placed on my pillow this morning.

_I guess I'll sleep after learning for physics. _After all, it was my last exam.

Physics was probably the most boring, but the easiest subject on earth. All you had to do was learn a few simple formulas by heart, a basic knowledge of maths and a calculator would do the rest. So after two hours of studying, I wasn't incredibly sleepy anymore. Just bored. I decided a few good movies would be the solution to all my problems.

* * *

Rikki, Don't Lose that Number  
_But if you have a change of heart  
Rikki, don't lose that number  
You don't wanna call nobody else  
Send it off in a letter to yourself  
Rikki, don't lose that number  
It's the only one you own  
You might use it if you feel better  
When you get home_  
-Steely Dan

I'd never thought I would ever fall asleep at school. That was something only Hayner did, but I guess that's what happens when you have a movie marathon until 5 a. m.

Luckily, physics were still as easy as they were yesterday, and the exam was way too easy. I finished first again – lucky me – but that also meant I had to wait for the others.

Sitting on one of the picnic tables on my own proved to be incredibly boring, and it didn't take long before I was flying off to dreamland.

_I was walking in a fair._

_Everything looked big and extremely spectacular, but the fair still had an authentic feeling, almost as if everything had a sepia shine to it. Some children ran past me. They had balloons in their hands that were filled with water instead of helium, but somehow still managed to float in the air. There was a fish swimming in every balloon, and I absentmindedly thought I'd like a balloon like that too._

_After a few minutes of walking, I spotted two familiar faces. Hayner and… Axel? They were facing each other and clearly arguing about something (I think it had to do something with the squirrel that was sitting in between them – it looked a bit like Pence and seemed ill at ease – but I'm not entirely sure)._

"_But he's mine," Axel whined._

"_No, he's not," Hayner retorted_

"_Yes, he is."_

"_I don't see your name on him."_

_Axel didn't have anything to say about that. Instead he took a sharpie. I didn't quite see what he did after that, because a clown decided now was a good time to tie a balloon to my wrist – it was one with a dark red fish in it – and he consumed all my attention. I could hear Axel say something along the lines of "now you do" though._

"Oh, god, what did you do!" Olette shrieked, pulling me out of my dream world.

"What?" I asked, my voice still laced with sleep.

"Oh, hey Roxas, welcome back to the land of the living," a voice said – Axel? What was he doing here? Hadn't he decided to finally leave me alone?

Looking around, I saw that Hayner and Pence where sitting too, neither of them looking too happy, and I was beginning to wonder for how long I'd been asleep exactly, when Olette spoke again.

"Your hand." She looked quite troubled, a bit angry, even.

Still trying to get the sleep out of my eyes, I looked down at my hand.

Something was written on it in big, capital letters: AXEL'S POSSESION.

Slowly, the gears in my head started turning. The conversation in my dream hadn't been the result of my imagination at all. Pieces of a real conversation had slipped through my skull, but Hayner and Axel hadn't been arguing about a squirrel, no – it had been about me.

My eyes shot up to angrily meet Axel's – his were filled with sheer happiness, which just pissed me off more.

"I thought you had finally decided to leave me alone," I grumbled.

"Aww, but Roxas, leaving you alone really isn't so easy." His voice hadn't changed, but it looked like my tone had forced the happy glint to leave his eyes. Why was it so hard to push him away without feeling guilty?

"I just thought you'd like some rest so you could study for your exams, but then I remembered I wouldn't see you during the holidays either, and that thought was just unbearable, so I came to ask for your number."

Forget the guilt, he didn't look that hurt, his dramatic tone of voice and the hand movements proved that. They almost made me laugh, too, but I wasn't going to give in that easily. And giving him my phone number? Never.

"Come, Olette, Hayner, Pence, it's time to go home, before we all freeze to death." Ignoring Axel was probably the best option now, so I slung my backpack over my shoulder and turned to go before even waiting for an answer.

Axel, however, didn't seem to like that.

"Hey Roxas, wait!" Was he getting slightly panicked there? "Come on, Roxas, wait a minute." I could hear him searching for something. There was a muffled 'Damn it' and a few other sounds I didn't really recognize – I was probably too far away, before Axel was by my side again. He handed me a little note.

"Here. It's my number." I just ignored him.

"Come on Roxas," he pleaded. Guilt was taking over again, damn it. I took the note and his stupid face cheered up a bit.

"Please call me, all right?"

I just stuffed the note in one of my pockets.

When I got home, the first thing I did was throw the note in the garbage can. Two days later, it was collected with the other rubbish.

It was so easy to dispose it now that I didn't have to look at Axel's sad face. But the markings were an entirely different matter.

* * *

*Frikandel is a typical Belgian dish. It is often eaten with french fries or as a snack. (Go wikipedia it: en .wikipedia .org/ wiki/ Frikandel)

Now go click that big, yellow review button. You know you want to.

**Random Fact of the Day:**  
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:_  
Spades _- King David, _Hearts _- Charlemagne, _Clubs _- Alexander the Great, _Diamonds _- Julius Caesar


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: I lied. The good stuff doesn't happen in this chapter. You'll have to wait.  
I had actually planned this chapter to be a little bit more 'interesting', but the chapter became a little longer than expected, so I had to cut off here.

Also, I'm so sorry that this chapter took soo long. And if** HellzLittleAngel** hadn't reviewed a week ago, you probably would be waiting still, so go thank her.

Also also, this chapter is unbeta-ed, but I'll update as soon as it is. I didn't want you all to have to wait longer.

Thanks to **Mirit**, **sai-is-my-lover**, **Dragonfly-Star**, **Ishida no Revolution** and **HellzLittleAngel** for reviewing last chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own KH (duh) The song is Fire and Ice by Rasputina. I love the song because it desplays Rox's feelings very well.

**

* * *

Chapter VIII**

Fire and Ice_  
Fire and ice you come on like a flame  
And then you turn a cold shoulder  
Fire and ice I wanna give you my love  
But you'll just take a little piece of my heart  
You'll just tear it apart_  
-Rasputina

Winter break did _not_ start out good. I didn't even want to know how it all would end.

It was all Axel's fault. The markings didn't give me any peace of mind. Every time I looked at my hand, they reminded me of how sad his eyes had looked, how they shifted to joy, how a happy smile was born on his lips. I didn't want to think about it.

And then there was the problem of other people seeing it. My parents certainly didn't need to know of this.

I had tried washing my hands, but the only result I got after a good ten minutes of scrubbing were bright red, itchy hands, that only accentuated the black markings. I decided wearing gloves would do the trick. My mom only asked about my strange behavior once. I told her my hands were cold. She left it at that.

But there was another problem. I had skating practice in the evening, and I had a feeling Sophia would not be pleased at all with the markings. Luckily for me, gloves were required for figure skating.

* * *

"Oh, god, Rox. That was fuckin' hilarious!" Sophia cried while gasping for air. She would die of oxygen deficiency if she didn't stop laughing soon.

"It's not funny at all," I grumbled. "No need to laugh so hard."

"Hah, as if. Someone just skated you over and then mistook ya for a girl."

"You do know 'skated over' is not a word, do you?"

"Nah, that's two words." She rolled her eyes. "Don' be so grumpy." She shook her head and dropped down on the bench with our shoes. "If someone mistook me for a boy, you'd be laugin' your ass of too."

"No," I answered. "That wouldn't be all that funny. You practically are a boy." I couldn't help the chuckle at the mental image though.

She flipped me off while untying her skates, but she was still laughing.

Untying my skates, taking them off and then tying my shoes with my gloves on proved to be quite a shore, and Sophia soon noticed my difficulties.

"Why don't you just take your gloves off?" She was already putting her skates away.

I shrugged.

"It's cold."

She narrowed her eyes, but I didn't see, as I was concentrating on my task. "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing." I didn't sound very convincing.

She frowned. "Give me your hands."

"No."

"If you don't have anything to hide, then why don't you want to show them to me?"

"Fine." Angrily, I took off my gloves.

She audibly breathed out through her nose.

"I should've known it was that bastard. Such a mean trick."

I put my gloves back on again and continued tying my skates. Sophia sat beside me without saying a word, but I knew she wasn't really mad. Not at me.

The shrill ringing of my phone pierced the silence. I groaned.

"Sophia, could you please take that? If it's my mom, tell her that I'm currently throwing up or something and that I'll call her back. I'm not in the mood to talk to her right now."

She laughed and the strange atmosphere between us was broken.

"Sourpuss."

She answered the phone without looking at the caller ID.

"Hello, you are speaking with Sophia, Roxas' secretary. If you are Roxas's mom, I have to tell you that he is currently throwing up and that he will call you back later, thank you," she said with a fake sweet voice. So she actually _could_ speak like a girl. What a surprise.

I rolled my eyes at her.

Luckily, it was not my mom on the others side of the phone, and I could hear the answer, even though I was sitting a meter away.

"_Hi Sophia, Sora here! I need to talk to Roxas. Is he really throwing up?"_

I mouthed a 'yes'. I didn't want to talk to Sora either, but she ignored me. I didn't really care if Sophia talked with Sora, even though they didn't really know each other personally, they knew of each other's existence, and I even think they talked once or twice through msn. They went along all right. However, recent events seemed to have brought a change in that.

"Hmm.. He ain't, but I gotta talk with you Sora."

I frowned and finally pulled off my first skate. I didn't hear Sora's answer.

"You should leave Roxas alone."

Again, I could only hear a faint murmur as Sora spoke, but it wasn't all that long, and soon, Sophia was speaking again.

"You know what I mean Sora. Don't play dumb."

Murmuring again, a bit longer this time.

"What? Notnin' can go wrong? Do you even know what it feels like if someone cheats on you?"

Her voice had gotten louder, and I was getting afraid of the outcome of their conversation.

"_How do you know if he will? You don't even know him."_

Sora's voice had gotten louder too, and I could easily understand him now.

"And you do?" Sophia hissed through the receiver. "You see him four hours a week. You've seen his good side, so what? Maybe if you had really listened to Roxas when he told you 'bout his problems, you wouldda know he really isn't a knight in shining armor. But it looks like you are too fuckin' lost in your perfect little world, that your perfect little friend created for you to even realize that."

This was definitely not going to end well.

"_So what if he's had girlfriends before? This could be different!"_

Sora choose to ignore her accusation and instead offer a new tactic.

"Oh yeah?" Sophia lifted one eyebrow.

"_He could've been hiding he was gay or something. A lot of players do that."_

Sophia wasn't impressed. "Yeah, and that's why he was suddenly all over Roxas. 'Cause true love makes you forget all about homophobes." The sarcasm was evident in her voice.

"_Maybe he just realized he was gay when he met Roxas."_

I could imagine Sora frowning on the other side of the line.

"I highly doubt that Sora. As I said earlier, this ain't one of your stupid fairy tales."

With that, she turned off the phone.

I didn't know what Sora had intentionally called for until Wednesday, when I was forced to attend a small Christmas party at his home the next Saturday.

* * *

On Friday, we all got the results of our exams, and to my relief, I didn't flunk Latin. Physics was on the top of the list with a bright 93/100. Something to be proud of indeed.

Olette went home with me, because our Latin teacher decided to be a bitch and give us a group assignment due to the first week after the holydays. She clearly did not get the meaning of 'vacation'.

After three hours, the project was finished – mostly because of Olette's super fast translation skills – and we were sitting on my bed, waiting for her dad to pick her up (He didn't want her to go by bike. Snow had begun to fall and the roads were far too slippery for his 'little girl'). We had tried to do a snowball fight to drive our boredom away, but after throwing the door open and getting chilled to the bone in a matter of seconds, it was mutually decided that it was way too cold to be outside.

"Hey Roxas?" Olette said, a bit reluctant. She continued when she saw she had my full attention.

"In the past, I always thought you were a boring, asocial guy, who didn't want to make any friends." She looked as if she was searching for words. "But then, when I got to know you, you completely opened up. And when I hear you talk about your drawing academy or your skating club, I get the impression you're not like that at all. It bothered me, and when I thought about it, I remembered you came to our school in the middle of your second year. Did something happen at your previous school?" She fidgeted a bit, unsure of how to continue now there was only silence between us. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. It's none of my business," She added.

Actually, I didn't feel like telling her. I didn't feel like telling anyone. It was one of those things you think your friends should know, but you just don't know how to tell them. But Olette deserved to know. I could see she was worried and now she was one of my friends, it _was_ her business.

I started biting my cheek in search of words. This was not going to be easy.

"Before I went to our school, I went to a catholic one that was closer to home." I bit my lip and looked at my hands. "I was quite popular, and had a big group of 'friends.'" I made air quotes. "Of course I knew most of them were just attracted to the popularity, but I had one best friend. His name was Thomas. We were hand in glove. The only problem was the girls. Somewhere around the end of the first year, he got himself a girlfriend and the time we spend together decreased drastically. He tried his best to spend as much time with me as he could, and even though it still wasn't the same, I could understand that. But after a while, I got jealous. Not of the girl, mind you, no – of him. Whenever he was with her, he looked so… incredibly happy. I wanted that happiness too." I laughed softly, bitterly.

_That was so stupid of me. I knew I could never get that happiness._

I ignored Olette's questioning look and started talking again: "So I found myself a girlfriend. She was a cute little girl, long, black hair, fair skin and rosy cheeks, with a soft personality. Thomas was happy for me, but somehow, I wasn't. She didn't give me what I wanted" - _she couldn't_ – "but I stayed with her, thinking: 'It'll come. It just takes some time.'"

I sighed.

"That's when I met Axel. 'Met' is a big word actually. He was waiting at the school entrance (I later heard he was waiting for his girlfriend) and I was too, because my girlfriend had a make-up test and we'd planned to cycle home together. I couldn't tear my eyes off him. I eventually learned that his name was Axel, that he was 16 and that he had a girlfriend who was in the year above mine. I don't really know how it went from there. It's… hard to describe how my crush began." I was searching for words now. Really searching and not really knowing what to say. I licked my lips idly. "I guess I started to realize something was wrong when I first saw him smile. Like, really laugh to someone. I got jealous at that. I wanted him to smile at me. But I didn't approach him, not even once. I broke up with my girlfriend, because I finally realized I would never get what I wanted from her. Other than that, I went on with my life like before. In the beginning of second year though, Thomas tried to hook me up with other girls, and it bothered me, but I didn't have the courage to tell him my 'secret'.

"I needed it to get off my chest though. Sophia was the first one I told. I had been afraid at first, but I don't really know why. I knew she was very open, but it still took a few weeks before I had the guts to speak with her. She just smiled at me after I told her. She didn't give a damn."

Olette shook her head at my language use, but I was too engrossed in my memories to notice.

"At Sophia's advice, I came out to my friends at the drawing Academy. The news spread fast and the others in our group knew about it in less than an hour, but no-one seemed to really care.

"I hadn't told Thomas though. Coming out to him proved to be al lot harder. With my drawing academy and Sophia, I knew what to expect more or less. I knew they were all open-minded, but I had no idea about Thomas' view on the subject.

"I told him on a whim one day. We were cycling home and he told me about some girl that was clearly interested in me or something. He asked me why I didn't go out with her, so I told him the truth. He was shocked. He didn't know what to say, so he just said 'oh'. I asked him not to tell anyone, and he nodded and then I had to turn left and he had to turn right and we went home without another word.

"The next day, everyone knew. Thomas acted as if he didn't know me; everybody else treated me like filth. I guess our friendship didn't mean anything in the end."

"Didn't your school do anything about it?"

I sighed again. I hadn't really talked with anyone about this. Others had asked about it off course, but I had always avoided the subject.

"They couldn't really do anything. They were smart enough to do everything behind the backs of the teachers. I doubt they even knew what was happening. They could see I didn't belong with the group anymore, but what can you do about that…"

"So you changed schools to forget about everything?"

I shrugged. "Actually, my mom made my change. But I did want to forget about everything. So I changed schools in the middle of the year. My mom wanted me to go to a school a bit further away, where nobody had heard any rumors, and I was all for it. If it was farther away, I had less chance of seeing Axel, because he caused all that stupid shit." A light smile played around my lips when I thought about my naïveté.

Olette tilted her head a bit. "But Axel goes to our school."

"It was a shock seeing him here, really. Before I went here, I thought that if there was no Axel in my life, maybe I could go back to how I was before. On my first day in our school, I was waiting for the secretary to give me my schedule, which somehow, she had lost. Then suddenly, Axel barged in with a big smile on his face. The secretary just rolled her eyes and asked his reason for being late. Again." I laughed a bit. "I have to say I was quite confused. After the secretary wrote something down for him and saying something about detention, he turned and saw me. At first, he looked a bit confused too, but then he winked at me and was out of the door again."

* * *

I was bored out of my mind and I desperately needed something to get my mind off… a certain man. The movie I was watching wasn't interesting enough to keep my eyes from traveling to my hand, which was still gloved, but I knew the words '_Axel's Possession'_ were still there.

I absentmindedly picked up my phone and scrolled to the 'A' in my contact list (which didn't need that much scrolling), but I threw it away when I noticed I was looking for the one I really didn't want to call, only to jump one meter in the air and run for it when it went off. I wanted to bang my head on something when I realized that I was disappointed it was only Sora.

I should really get some rest, but I'd been putting off going to bed because I knew I would only dream of _him_.

I picked up the phone with a sigh.

"Hey Sora."

"Oh, hey Roxas. Just calling to make sure you'll come tomorrow. Be at my place at 4. See you."

He had hung up before I could answer.

Axel dreams or not, I should really be going to bed. I knew I would not survive Sora's little Christmas party if I wasn't at least half awake.

But dreaming of Axel, I did.

* * *

_That was it guys. Do look forward to the next chapter. For real this time._

_(And you know, reviewing alsways helps to keep me inspirated. I'd like to know what you guys think will happen.)_

_And to educate you all a bit on Belgium (Were this story takes place) the facts of this and next chapters will be about Belgium.  
_

**Random Fact of the Day:**  
Belgium has more comic makers per square kilometer than any other country in the world (even Japan).


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Don't worry guys, I'm not dead... though I did get sick three times, had to go to the hospital for a heart chek-up (nothing was wrong though), had to do exams (I got 92 for physics, almost as much as Rox, lol), then there was winter holydays (Which I totally spent on skating and sewing, I'm such a bad author), and then school started again and tried to kill me, then there was exams for cello,... Oh and my friend lend me her playstation 2 for a few days (after a bit of begging and a lot of nagging), so I could play KH2 (Which totally did not help to write this story)... But, the next chapter is finally finished!

I was kind of really unhappy with half of this chapter and completely rewrote Roxas' and Axel's dialogue. With the help of one of my teachers. Can you imagine?

Thanks to **Leoshishi-chan**, **HellzLittleAngel**, **TheCloakedSchemer-6** and **hanatos Angelos Girl** for reviewing! I love you guys!

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom hearts. The song is Kill, Kill, kill from the Pierces.

**

* * *

Chapter IX**

Christmas parties  
_I asked you please to leave my heart  
But you refused to go  
I can't take this pain much longer  
You insist on teaching me what I already know  
Absence made this heart grow fonder  
_-The Pierces

I had planned to sleep in – like, really sleep in, until 2 or something – but my mother would have none of that. She, too, thought that cycling in this snow was too dangerous and I had to take the bus to Sora's. It wasn't like I had a particular dislike for busses, but I did hate taking the bus to Sora. Because there was none at all. So I had to take the bus to God-knows-where first, and go to Duffel from there.

And that too wouldn't be too awful either if the busses didn't have this terrible habit of showing up late or not showing up at all when it snowed. Of course, my mother had taken that all into account and woke me up at 10, so I could take the bus at 2 o' clock.

But in the end I needed even _more_ than 2 hours for something that normally only took 20 minutes (and then I didn't take the time in account it took to run back to get that stupid present I got for Xion – because Sora had had the _brilliant_ idea to do a present tombola – which made me miss my bus), and I was cold and cranky by the time I finally arrived.

It didn't stop Sora from beaming at me when he threw the door open and tugging me inside, before slamming the door shut again.

"Guuuuuys! Roxas finally ariveeed~!" he sang – out of tune, may I say – and Namine's, Kairi's and Riku's heads popped through the door of Sora's room. Sora's house was a little strange. His parents had thought it was a good idea to have bedrooms on the ground floor, and their living room and everything else on the first floor. I never understood why.

A smile played on my lips when I was my friends again, but my face darkened immediately upon entering the room.

Sora had promised me it would be a small party, and it was. There were only two girls I didn't know, but I'd seen them before and I knew they were from his school. Then there was Kairi, Riku, Namine and Xion. And in the middle of the room, grinning brightly, was the reason for my suddenly gloomy mood – Axel.

I should have known he would be here. I should've known better tan to believe Sora would leave me alone just because Sophia had asked him to. Hell, he hadn't even promised anything.

I shouldn't have been caught off guard and I really shouldn't have been staring at him.

He saw my dumbfound look and winked. I knew I was turning red.

Partly because I wasn't mentally prepared yet, partly that wicked grin made me think about my dreams last night.

* * *

We decided to just play a game of cards. Sora had insisted on a snowball fight, but I wanted to warm up a bit first.

After a while, one of the girls (I learned her name was Charlotte) sighed after losing _yet again_.

"Can't we do something else? This is boring." She sighed again.

Axel put his cards down. "If we're going to take a break, I'm going to get some new sweets."

We all stared at him, but he just shrugged and went upstairs in search for his prize.

"Now that was random," Kairi noted.

"I wonder if he's a cat person," Namine said.

"…_That_ was random."

"No, it totally makes sense!" Namine argued. "Just look at him. He completely acts like a cat. I wonder if he has one…"

"He does!" Sora piped up and everyone turned their attention on him. "He's got three!"

"How do you know that?" Axel stood in the doorway with some Christmas snacks in his hands. "I'm pretty sure I've never talked about my cats at the drawing academy."

Sora looked like a small kid that just had been caught stealing candy.

"Secret sources?" He provided.

Axel looked at him as if he was some creepy old stalker. I'd never seen him like this, creeped out and baffled and not at all that confident for once. It made him look more human and maybe even a little bit cute. It made me smile.

"Sooooo… Are we going to continue playing cards?" Kathlein, the other girl I didn't know, said.

"No! Let's play seven minutes in heaven!" Charlotte exclaimed, desperate for something that didn't involve her probably losing again. Soon After, Sora had found a bottle and the game could begin.

Charlotte smiled, and from the corner of my eye, I could see Axel winking at her. I seethed. Was he going to play _that_ game again? Did he really think he could win me over by making me jealous? By kissing other girls again? That was not going to happen. What was he going to do anyway? Make out in a closet? I could ignore that… Well, he could try and make an awful lot of noise… But still!

I hear the girl squeak, and looked up, praying to God to _please not make those thoughts come true_.

I saw Axel smirking at me, quite amused, and… not quite making a move to get up.

Confused, I looked at the closet, where the girl stood with… Riku? When the door closed, Sora immediately scooted closer to press his ear against it.

"Sora, that's not nice," Kairi whizzed, but he didn't listen.

Instead, his eyes got big. "She's confessing," he whispered, bewildered. Now, Kairi looked interested too, but bit her lip.

"Come on Sora, even more the reason to not eavesdrop," Namine now said, and after a hard glare, Sora came back again.

"Okay, then what do you suggest we do?" he asked with a pout. "I'm not going to wait and do nothing for 7 minutes."

"Twister?" Xion tentively asked. And for the second time, Sora was sent out to search something.

"I want to spin the spinner," Xion covered when he came back.

"I'll step aside for this game, there are too many players," Kathlein explained.

"Yeah, me too," Namine said.

It was only when Kairi shouted: "Let's make it a battle between the boys!" when I realized I should have been backing out too. I didn't want to play twister with Axel. I mean, come on. _Twister_. Was there any classic game more suggestive? I think not.

But I knew Sora would never let me go, and I would only give Axel inspiration if I complained, so I swallowed my protest and got ready for the game.

It turned out better than I had expected. Sora lost his balance first, and almost made me lose mine too, but I could catch myself on time. And then, strangely enough, Axel did not make any moves to annoy me. On the contrary, he played the game as best as he could – and I must admit, he was quite good. He tried to take my good spots with his long legs and arms, but I was determined to show him I had a good balance. I didn't do figure skating for nothing. Before long, it turned into a full-fledged balance battle.

I didn't even notice at first when the closet door opened and Riku and Charlotte came out, but a small sniffle caught my attention. I looked up to see Riku whisper something soothing to the girl, but I couldn't quite understand.

"She must have been rejected. Too bad. They would have made a cute couple," Axel sighed, and I send him a questioning look, but he mouthed something among the lines of 'I'll tell you later.'

Sora gave the bottle a large swing, but my attention was claimed by a 'left foot green' from Xion, and I was searching for a nice green spot before Axel could take it. _Ah yeeeesss, got it_.

"Left hand green."

Oh, damn that spot was a little more difficult. And Axel had already taken it. _Shit_. That other green spot then. Why were his legs so damn long?

I had to maneuver in a crab-like position – beneath Axel, because I couldn't reach over his arms – which wasn't really stable and I hoped Xion would spin fast. But that hope was shattered when Sora exclaimed "Heh, guys, awesome~!" and she turned her head towards him.

"What now?" I huffed.

"You're not going to believe this," he laughed. "You'll have to get in the closet together with Axel."

I snapped my head in his direction, but unfortunately lost my balance at the same time, making me fall hard on my butt.

"What?" I hissed. That was just too much of a coincidence, they must have cheated. But there was nothing I could do. I ignored Axel's waiting hand and stomped off to the stupid closet.

As soon as the closet doors closed, the air around us turned into ice. I crossed my arms and glared at Axel. He must have been a part of this plot. It was something he would do, trying to cheat at spin the bottle to get me in the closet with him.

"Well, that was a mean stunt they played on us," he said while scratching his head.

"You would have liked it better if Charlotte would be here instead of me, wouldn't you?" _Why did I say that?_

"Charlotte? Nah, she isn't my type," he answered, but it sounded forced, like that wasn't what he wanted to say at all.

I decided to shut up. I wouldn't say anything for these stupid seven minutes, and then when this was all over, I could just come out of the closed and – wait, no that sounded all wrong. Anyway. If this was over, I would just forget everything that happened and go home, saying I had practice the next morning or something. That sounded believable.

Axel didn't say anything either, and somehow that annoyed me a bit. He seemed nervous. He shouldn't be nervous at all. After all, he was a player. If he finally saw I wasn't someone to be played with, he should just accept that, give me some last dirty comment, and then move on. No, he shouldn't be nervous at all.

The silence was slowly becoming unbearable, but I was not going to break it.

Axel cleared his throat.

"Boring don't you think? This closet I mean."

"Bwaah…" I stopped myself there.

"What do you mean, 'bwaah'?"

I didn't answer him. What was I going to say anyway? The closet _was_ boring, wasn't it? If you didn't take into account how sexy he looked right now. But he didn't need to know that.

Another long, painful silence. Axel was fidgeting, but I wouldn't say anything. It was probably partly his fault we were stuck in here. It soothed him right to fidget. Why was he nervous anyway?

"They're probably eating all the food right now," he said, just to say something. "Or maybe they're opening the presents. You know, I found this perfect present for you, but I picked Namine's name, too bad. I got here a pair of earrings, every girl likes that, don't th-"

"You saw something… for me?"

Axel's look said something among the lines of 'why the fucking hell did I let that slip?' and he wanted to just drop the subject, but that made me even curiouser.

"Why were you searching for something to give me?"

Axel took a deep breath, as if he wanted to calm his nerves. I expected him to look away, but he didn't. He looked straight at me.

"I wanted to buy you something special, because you're special to me too, Roxas."

"But you didn't, because you picked someone else's name. Really special, huh?" I was pissed. Was he trying to win me over with some stupid, corny lie?

"You wouldn't accept it."

I didn't say anything. I'd never admit to his face that he was right. But he should stop looking at me like that. Soon. It made me feel all jittery. I didn't like it.

"Just, go chase some girl or something. I'm not going to be your boyfriend" - saying that felt really weird – "to be thrown away like a piece of junk after a few weeks, when you get bored of me."

"Didn't you ever consider I might have been serious this whole time?"

"And how many girls did you tell that lie, exactly?"

"None!"

"Yeah, right," _I_ looked away.

"… Roxas… Every girl I've been with knew pretty damn well that it was just a fling. Go ask Olette if you don't believe me!"

There was a pause. I didn't say anything. Didn't want to say anything, didn't even know what to tell him.

He sighed, noticing I wasn't going to give in.

"Look ,Roxas… No, Look a t me!" He made a move as if he wanted to grab my chin and _make_ me look at him, but he didn't dare. I was happy about that. I kept looking away, just to taunt him. To show him he didn't have power over me. I wouldn't fall for him or his stupid, sweet lies.

But I wasn't kidding anyone. I'd fallen for him a long, long time ago.

"Roxas?" He asked carefully. I looked up. He was fiddling a bit. "Roxas, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry.

_Cry?_ No way, I didn't cry. Well I did, but that was when I was ten, and I'd broken my hand. I never cried.

I couldn't deny it though, as I could feel the water slowly trickling down over my cheeks, a single tear even hanging off my nose.

It was weird, Alien. Such an unknown feeling. My head was spinning with questions of 'why the hell am I crying?'

Axel tried to soothe me, clearly having no clue what to do now, while I was just watching him with big, questioning blue eyes, the tears still sliding down my face.

He was so close then, wiping away the tears, looking at me intensely. Somewhere in the back of my mind, there was a small voice telling me to look away, maybe even push him away or at least do _something_ about the closeness, but I couldn't. It merely made me blink twice, but that didn't stop him from slowly inching closer, taking it as a sign when I didn't move.

Axel's eyes were closed and his lips were soft – so soft – while he pressed them lightly against mine and his arms tightened around me as if he never, ever wanted to let me go again.

I don't know why my hand was suddenly in his hair. I have no idea why I hesitantly started kissing him back.

He pulled away far too soon, but when I opened my eyes, he was beaming at me. I looked away, blushing, my mind still not really comprehending what had just happened.

His lips were on my neck then, and I turned my head to say something, but I forgot what it was as soon as he kissed me again.

The small voice in the back of my head was back again, shouting at me that this should stop now. It was so wrong on so many levels, but its cries obtained no hearing. My brain was too occupied with how his kiss was somehow fiercer, more confident than before, with how my insides were beginning to turn into jelly, and especially with how he slow but sure pried my lips apart, but it decided to not resist in the slightest. On the contrary.

There was a loud bang and sudden silence. When I looked up, the closed doors were open and Sora was standing there, looking quite surprised. Unfortunately, he recovered quickly and a grin appeared on his face.

"The seven minutes are over guys, time to get out of the closet."

I ignored the double meaning in his comment in favor of giving him the deadliest glare I could think of.

* * *

Things got awkward after that. I avoided Axel's eyes as much as possible, and he didn't seem to know what to do. To speak the truth, I didn't either.

After a few more games, Sora decided it was finally time to play his snowball fight. It was dark already, but that would only make it more exciting. Or something like that.

Everyone scurried out to the hall to get ready. Everyone but Axel, who had been so stupid to take his gloves with him to Sora's room, and they were now lost somewhere in the mess. Sora claimed he had tidied it, but to be frank, it looked as unkempt as ever.

That's when I got a plan.

I hurried over to my bag and reentered the room not a minute later. Axel was still searching, but he looked up when he noticed me.

He raised one eyebrow at the paper in my hand. I knew I was fidgeting, but I didn't care.

"What's that?" He asked.

"My number."

I knew I was blushing, and I almost regretted what I'd done. But the smile on his face was worth it.

* * *

_We're kind of halfway the story, guys! Now the evil plot can begin. Muhahahaha._

_Also, I kind of need idea's for what could happen to Roxas and Axel on a date. (I'm looking at you to give me idea's, HellzLittleAngel, request whatever you want, because you promised me that story, which I trust you will finish before I die - Ahh, postponin everything, I know the evil temptation, lol)_

**Random fact of the day:**  
On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Sorry for not updating for so long *bows* I don't really have an excuse this time :CCC

I should have updated sooner, but I was too busy making a Namine cosplay (yay it's finally finished). I'll have to buy a new wig though, cause mine is really cheap and crappy and hair is falling out by the dozens.

Chapter is a little boring. There was gonna be some action at the end, but I'm going to Italy for some time and I didn't want you guys to wait any longer, so that'll be for next chapter.  
I hope you'll enjoy it.

Thanks to** Shanazi**, **Chrno AP** (who actually tried to bribe me with a one-shot - a very attractive offer - but my imagination failed me to write), **HellzLittleAngel** (thanks for your support for every new chapter I write *hugs*), **Cilla**,** WinterTurndra ** and** XxZOmBIE uNICoRNxX **! I feel so sorry for you guys because you take your time to review and I still fail to update quickly Q.Q I feel like such a bad author.

You all get a virtual cupcake for being so awesome!

(I tried to make one of those uber cool -|||- drawings, but FFiction hates them)

Also, FFiction is acting weird. o.O

EDIT: Finished the chapter! It's almost two pages longer now. This little update is dedicated to all my lovely reviewers!

* * *

**Chapter X**

_That man_  
_That man is like a flame  
And ooh that man plays me like a game  
My only sin is I can't win  
Ooh I wanna love that man  
Ooh that man is on my list  
And ooh that man I wanna kiss  
My only sin is I can't win  
Ooh I wanna love that man  
-_Caro Emerald

Not even a day later, I had a missed call. My phone didn't recognize the number, but I did. I just came out of the shower, and I must have not heard it.

Should I call him back? With what excuse for missing his call? I certainly wasn't going to tell the truth.

Before I could really think it through, the phone started ringing again.

It was Axel.

"Eh, hello?" I mumbled, not sure what to say.

"_Hey Roxie."_ He sounded laid-back, and I could imagine him lounging on a couch, a cat on his lap, staring at the sun that filtered through the snowy clouds.

"Hey, Axel." I answered, realizing I had to say something to fill the silence. "How are you?"

"_Good."_ I could hear the smirk through his voice. _"Nice weather, isn't it? The sun is finally up again, and the snow is slowly melting away." _Was he laughing at my failed attempt at small talk?

"Well sorry for not being as smooth at talking as you."

"_Is that a compliment?"_

Was it?

"Maybe."

He laughed. _"Stubborn as ever, I see."_

I stuck out my tongue, but then realized he couldn't see it.

"_Hey, Rox?"_

"Yeah?" What was with all the nicknames?

"_Are you free tomorrow?"_

"I think so."

"_Nice. 5 o'clock at the theatre. It's a date."_

He'd hung up before I even fully realized what he's said.

* * *

_The boy walked briskly through the dark streets. The ground under his feet had been snowed under, trampled by pedestrians, melted, frozen, snowed under and then trampled again, making it look more like a mountain path than a sidewalk. He didn't care about that. His steel-toed boots had good grip, and he had good balance anyway. He shouldn't walk in loose snow. It was better if he couldn't be tracked. Or so he'd been told._

_But he didn't care about that._

_In fact, he didn't care about anything at all._

* * *

I was nervous. Axel was 11 minutes late already. I'd read stories of people who'd been stood up, but would Axel actually do that? After that day in the closet, it didn't seem very logical. But who was I to judge?

Maybe I should have called back or confirmed or something. Maybe I should have sent a mail?

"Ah, there you are." A second later, Axel was ruffling the snow out of my spikes. "Sorry I'm late. The trains were delayed. Typical." He sighed dramatically, but then got serious again. "You should have gone inside. You must be freezing."

I shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. "It's not that cold."

I was lying through my teeth, but I didn't want to look like a sissy in front of him.

Without further ado, he took my hand and led me inside. His fingers were warm, and he must have noticed mine were almost freezing off, but he didn't say anything about it.

People were staring.

They were staring when Axel opened the door, they were staring when we walked up to the register and they were staring even more when we were discussing about who would pay for whose tickets. In the end, Axel won and he paid with a grin.

At least he let me buy our drinks and snacks –which weren't that pricey, because apparently we were going to eat out after our movie. Axel insisted on paying for that too. I gave in with a sigh, not wanting to draw even more attention to us.

* * *

The nerves started to flare again while we walked to our seats. What was Axel actually expecting? I'd never been on a date before. Well, there'd been that one relationship, but that had pretty much ended up as a disaster… so, yeah…

Luckily, the commercials started sooner than expected. At least I didn't have to start awkward conversations now. But it was only when Mickey Mouse came on screen when we noticed something was wrong. As far as I knew, Harry Potter was not made by Disney… and it certainly wasn't their 50th animation movie.

I looked to my left, only to see that Axel was as confused as I was.

"Wrong movie hall?"

Now I looked around –actually taking in our surroundings – it was amazing that we hadn't noticed before. There couldn't be that many children coming to see Harry Potter.

* * *

In the end, the movie was hilarious. It had been a long time since I last saw a good old Disney movie, and even though Tangled wasn't old, it was more than good.

Once in the cold air outside again, we immediately caught the bus. Which was weird. We were going to a restaurant, no? And as far as I knew, there were plenty restaurants in the vicinity of the theatre.

"Axel, why are we taking the bus?"

He smiled. "Because it's a bit too far to walk there in this cold." That answer was way too vague for my liking, but he just laughed at my questioning look. "You'll see when we get there." Grin. "I won't kidnap you, promise." He added. I was not convinced.

In the end, the bus ride only took a few minutes, but I had to admit that my fingers probably would have frozen off had we walked. We had ended up in a pleasant area with a few little restaurants, but I still didn't understand the need to go so far… Until Axel took my hand again and I turned and saw a big, rainbow colored flag.

Axel must have noticed me stopping for a moment and instantly became a little nervous. "Well, it thought you seemed quite uncomfortable with people staring at us and all, and I thought you found it unnerving for people to stare because we're both guys and then I remembered this place so I thought maybe… We can still go to another restaurant if you like." Yep. Definitely nervous. Not that I was any better off.

"No, it's all right." It was better actually.

He held the door open for me. It annoyed me a little – I wasn't a chick, now was I – but somewhere deep inside me, I also thought it was kind of sweet. I vaguely remembered Olette saying something about a gentlemanly air seeping through.

A waitress led us to a small booth in front of the window. The only sounds came from the soft murmurs of the few other patrons and the gentle jazz melody that seemingly came out of nowhere.

On Axel's advice, we both got lasagna. Then silence again.

Searching for a subject, I stumbled on a question I should have asked myself minutes ago.

"How come you know this restaurant?"

He stared blankly at me for a split second before he got the underlying question: _"How in hell do you know a gay restaurant in the middle of nowhere and why are you so certain their lasagna is amazing here?"_

He smiled. "I came here with Demyx once."

Wait – What? "Demyx?"

"No, not like that," he laughed." A long time ago, I was kind of… confused with my sexuality and Demyx dragged me here. I wasn't really honest with myself right then and I wouldn't listen to anything, but I do remember their incredible food."

"Oh..."

Silence.

"Hey Rox?"

I looked up. Again with the nickname?

"Let's play a game." I arched an eyebrow. I'd played enough games with Sora to be cautious of that word.

"Twenty questions." He suggested. I thought for a while. That game certainly listed under the 'suspicious' category, but would it really hurt? Everything was better than that stupid, embarrassing silence.

"What's your favorite color?"

He didn't have to think about that.

"Red."

"Really, I would never have guessed." I said sarcastically.

"Then you shouldn't have asked."

"I'd hoped it was something different. So, did you paint your hair?"

He wagged his finger at me.

"Ah, ah, Roxas. It's my turn." He said, smirking. That look promised trouble. Maybe I should really have thought about refusing a little longer.

"So, Roxas…" He stopped a second for the dramatic effect. "Do you have some embarrassing experience you never dared to tell anyone?"

I actually had to think about that for a while, until something my mind reminded something I would rather forget about.

"Well… There was one day we had a big test for Latin that took a little too long. We had PE next period and our teacher was pretty sucky. We had to do ten push-ups for every minute we were too late, so I was running and not really looking where I was going. I ended up in the girls changing room."

Axel snorted and I gave him a glare.

"The good part was that there was only one girl changing in there. The bad thing was that I didn't really realize I had the wrong room."

Now Axel was really trying to hold back laughter.

"Shut up. It's not that funny."

It was no use. He only laughed louder at my reaction.

"Do you realize it's not nice to laugh at your date?"

"Yes, but it's just too cute to see you blushing." He smiled. At least he'd stopped laughing. "And, did she hit you?" He asked with a smirk.

I was just about to answer grumpily when I reminded myself I didn't have to. "Nice try, but it's my turn."

"Wrong." He grinned. "You already asked me if I had manners."

"That doesn't count."

"It's a question, so it does."

"Fuck you."

Grin. "Go ahead."

I gave him my hardest glare yet. He just smiled sweetly and ruffled my hair over the table.

"So, did she?"

I sighed, defeated. "She didn't, but she screamed so hard I was deaf for the rest of the day."

He started chuckling, but luckily stopped before it got out of hand again.

"Now it's my turn. Same question."

He smiled to himself. "When I was fourteen, we were playing with pretty strong magnets during physics. I wanted to see if my braces were of real metal. I couldn't get them off anymore."

I stared with big eyes. "Braces? Really?" Somehow, I just couldn't picture Axel with _braces_.

"You know, Rox, I'll ignore it just this once, but the next time you ask a question when it's not your turn, you'll have to undergo punishment."

I could barely stop myself from asking what kind of punishment that might be. It was probably better not to know.

He slid a photo across the table with a little boy on it, laughing with an ice cream in his hand. Short hair, no tattoos and braces, but unmistakably Axel.

"See, braces," he smiled, and then put the photo back in his wallet when our food arrived.

Like Axel had promised, it smelled heavenly, and, if possible, it tasted even better. After a few minutes of munching down the divine meal, I noticed Axel smiling at me. I looked away a little awkwardly.

I was just about to question his weird behavior, when he began speaking. A good thing too, if you kept in mind the penalty I would have had to undergo.

"Looks like you like the food." I blushed a bit. Had I been eating a little too fast to be proper? Wasn't really impossible.

"How long have you been skating?"

I looked up, a little surprised. Not a question I'd been expecting.

"I don't know actually." I scratched the back of my head. "My parents were huge skating fans and I guess I've been standing on ice before I could even walk properly."

I could see he had another question ready, but it was my turn. I probably had a lot of questions flowing around somewhere in the very back of my mind, but none of them came to mind.

"Can't we just have a normal conversation instead of this game?"

He grinned at that.

"Nope. It's much more entertaining this way. And you lost your question again, by the way. My turn."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "You've been hanging out with Sora too often."

He stuck his tongue out.

"You have any trophies? Or was your excuse for skipping drawing academy just a fluke?"

"I do have some trophies from way back, but I don't really do competitions anymore. And that were two questions."

I took another bite from my food, smug that I'd caught him.

"Then you can punish me as you see fit." He winked.

I decided to ignore that ever happened.

* * *

Even though I'd never admit it, the evening went by way too fast for my liking, and it seemed to only be minutes until we were waiting for my bus, Axel insisting to 'walk' me home, even though it was no doubt a huge detour for him. Before I could protest however, we'd already gotten on and the bus departed.

Though actually, I really, really didn't mind sitting out of everyone's view, with Axel's arm around my waist.

The drive passed in silence as I tried not to doze off against Axel's shoulder. I did my best to hide how tired I actually was, but judging from the fond smile on Axel's face, I was failing miserably.

And then came the awkward moment we were standing on my porch, both hesitating, together with the realization that this date was actually really coming to an end and I didn't want him to go.

It was after ten o'clock and well past the time I was expected home, and every minute I stayed out would only increase the detention I would probably get for worrying my parents, but I couldn't care less.

And then there was still that tiny question that had been pestering me for a while now.

"So…" I hesitated a bit, unsure of what to actually say. "What are we now… exactly?"

" A couple?... If you'd like, that is."

There was a little hesitation and uncertainty in Axel's voice, something I wasn't used to, but it was somehow… really sweet too.

I couldn't do anything but smile at that.

"Yeah, I'd like."

Axel's eyes lit up with relief and happiness, and then… mischief. That didn't promise anything good.

"You know, Roxas…" He paused and smirked a little for extra effect. I looked at him questionably, but by now, I didn't really know if I wanted to hear the end of that sentence.

"It was my turn to ask a question."

It took a minute for me to understand what he was talking about.

"But I wasn't even aware we were still playing that game!"

"I never said we'd stopped playing, did I?"

I racked my brain, and sure, technically we could've still been playing.

"So…?" I asked.

"So you'll have to undergo punishment." He smiled.

"…And what would that punishment be?" I was kind of starting to fear for my innocence. Luckily, Axel probably didn't want to push it.

"Seeing as you're quite tired… how about a good night kiss?"

I blushed – why the hell was I blushing, it was just a little kiss – and before I could let my nerves take the better of me, I stood up on my tip-toes, and pressed my lips softly against his.

He was shocked for a second, but then he came back to his senses and responded and it was like all coherent thinking just flew out the window. I blame that on lack of oxygen.

By the time I could breathe again – Axel's scent, like spices and burning embers – I realized I had somehow ended up pressed against the door, and I hoped no-one had seen us.

"Axel…?"

I gave him a quick peck, to give myself some time to get the right words, and because I just wanted another taste of his lips.

"Hmm?"

I bit my lip and clutched his shirt a little bit tighter – when had my hands gotten there?

"Could we like… not make this public…? You can tell your friends all right, but… my parents are kind of strict and… stuff happened."

He seemed curious, but decided against asking and smiled none the less, albeit a little concerned.

"Off course."

* * *

_I hope you like it guys! Nothing much to say other than that I don't have acces to the internet for a while, so I won't be able to reply immediately, but please review! I'll love you for all eternity! ( or at least untill the next chapter is out)_

_PS: the vet said my cat needs to play more (she's quite fat) does anyone have tips to get her to play more often?_

**Random fact of the day:**  
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

On the same note: a cat's brain isn't really big either. Which acyaully saved a cat last month or so. The cat got an arrow through its head, but it didn't hit its brains, so it could easily be removed and the cat wasn't hurt at all.


End file.
